SEPA

The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) will allow customers to make non-cash euro payments to any beneficiary located anywhere in the 13-member ‘eurozone’, using a single bank account and a single set of payment instruments. All retail payments in the ‘eurozone’ will thereby become “domestic”, and there will no longer be any differentiation between national and cross border payments within the euro area. Click here to read more.


Faster Payments

From November 2007, customers can make payments via the Internet or telephone banking up to a limit of GBP10,000 that will reach the bank account of the beneficiary or payee within two hours. Click here to read more.


Duplicate Payments

Duplicate payments are an overpayment error occurring within the accounts payable department. The Institute of Internal Auditors suggests duplicate payments make up between 0.5% and 0.1% of annual invoice payments (www.theiia.org), which means one in a 1000 payments could be a duplicate. If your organisation makes £50 million in annual invoice payments you are likely paying out £50,000 in duplicate payments per year. Click here to read more.