The introduction of SEPA is a major step towards one standardized payments area across Europe. By 1st February 2014, most of the legacy national settlement schemes will give way to the central SEPA clearing structure for euro transactions.
With time pressing, many corporates are now looking for flexible and automated tools to ease the transition to SEPA. There is a particularly strong demand for solutions which ensure full SEPA compliance, while at the same time minimizing the effort needed to migrate. This was the driver behind the decision of DZ BANK AG and WGZ BANK AG to licence the "MultiCash SEPA All-round Suite". This licence allows parts or all of the package to be used by all members of the German cooperative banking group.
Now, any client of the cooperative banking group using the group’s GENO cash e-banking finds at his fingertips a complete set of solutions for a seamless move to SEPA. One special benefit is the option for managing SEPA direct debit mandates. "There are a variety of different challenges which corporates face when migrating to SEPA", say Stefan Brusky, transaction banking expert at DZ BANK AG and Reimund Nippert, product manager for payments at WGZ BANK AG. "Omikron’s SEPA package enables us to offer our corporates flexible solutions to match their individual requirements".
The first priority – to ease the transition to SEPA in a short time – is met by Omikron’s migration and conversion products, for instance directly converting legacy file formats with no need for manual intervention.
Not far behind is the requirement for keying and managing SEPA compliant orders, fully supported for Credit Transfers and Direct Debits in Omikron’s SEPA Orders module. These commonly used functions are enhanced by more specialized options, for instance supporting the administration of SEPA direct debit mandates or for checking the SEPA compliance of files generated by third-party applications. Each corporate can mix and match the solutions individually as required.
Below are more details of the options from Omikron’s SEPA package which the cooperative banking group is now able to offer its clients :
- SEPA File checker
Validation of SEPA files from third-party applications during import into GENO cash programs - SEPA Orders module
Entry and management of single and recurring orders as well as templates in line with the SEPA specification, as well as import of transactions from third-party systems - SEPA Converter
Conversion of payment files from legacy national formats to the SEPA format - SEPA Migration tool
Import of all data (outstanding orders as well as reference data such as banks, accounts, partners) from national payment modules into the SEPA payment module (incl. conversion to BIC/IBAN) - XML statements and SEPA returns
Acceptance and evaluation of XML balance and transaction information as well as SEPA returns - SEPA Mandate Admin Plus
Administration of a high volume of direct debit mandates in close connection with the SEPA payment module and the SEPA converter, if needed (includes a powerful mandate history)
"The MultiCash SEPA All-round Suite provides clients of the cooperative banking group with innovative payment solutions tailored to their specific needs", says Thomas Zimmermann, Managing Director of Omikron. "This is just one example of how corporates continue to benefit from the close and longstanding collaboration between the cooperative central banks and Omikron."