Clear2Pay launches ‘SEPA in a box’ Direct Debit solution

Clear2Pay, the international technology provider of next generation payment solutions for financial institutions announces today at the annual EBA conference in Vienna that it launches a SEPA Direct Debit solution aimed at banks needing a response to SEPA Direct Debit that ensures compliance today – within their own domain or through an outsourced scenario with another clearing bank.

SEPA migration has proven to be more complex than the industry envisaged; where the SEPA Credit Transfer migrations have been quite uneventful, the SEPA Direct Debit Scheme is far more complex and prohibits the re-use or upgrade of legacy systems due to the complexity and fundamental differences between SDD and current national schemes. With the implementation deadline looming, there is demand for a cost effective and easy to implement solution for the back office processing of SDD. In particular tier 2 and tier 3 banks who receive direct debits for their customers, but who do not have relationships with large corporates, the primary interest is on the collection/debtor side. With ‘SEPA in a box’, Clear2Pay can offer these banks, or the large banks that in-source their payments processing, a standardised debtor side SEPA Direct Debit solution with standard interfaces, and the potential to enhance the offering with differentiating services going forward.

Mark Hartley, CMO and VP Strategy & Business Development at Clear2Pay states: “The results of a survey we recently executed in conjunction with Banking Technology shows that there is a clear demand for outsourcing payments services. This ‘SEPA in a box’ solution offers a scenario like correspondent banking. It is the partial outsourcing of the SDD payments process. Smaller banks are still required to offer SDD to their debtor clients but are not able or willing to make a large investment upfront. The larger banks who wish to invest in SDD to build longstanding relationships on the other hand, can benefit too from this solution by in-sourcing payments from smaller banks. With this solution they can offer the mandatory minimum plus a wider range of additional services at a realistic price level, without having to go for maximum volume on day one.”