On January 28th the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) was launched. Almost fifty percent of companies in Germany, however, hardly know about the effects of SEPA, e.g. reduced costs due to facilitation of direct debit and money transfer procedures. In particular small businesses with an annual turnover of up to two million Euros know little about the new system, a fact which was revealed in the course of the “Elektronic Banking 2007″ study conducted by the Instituts ibi research at the Regensburg University.
Thus, 78% of small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) have never heard of SEPA and the innovations in the EU payment system. Major companies generating an annual turnover of more than 50 million Euros are, on the other hand, much better informed. Of these 48% quite precisely know what SEPA means for their respective businesses. Another 41% have at least some understanding of SEPA.
Similarly little is known about the internet based EBICS communication standard. Only 6% of those companies interviewed have precise ideas of how EBICS facilitates electronic payments. Here once again major companies are better informed than small business. 63% of the former have at least a basic knowledge about EBICS whereas only 33% of the latter have some knowledge about the effects of EBICS. By using this web-based standard business clients are henceforward able to transmit information to and carry out transactions more comfortably and faster via their banks. For instance, it will be possible to give the green light for a transaction while being on travel. Furthermore, data transmission does no longer require ISDN access so that faster methods of internet access can be used. 