tabbs wrote:The European Parliament agreed to the SEPA "migration deadline" of 1 February 2014 yesterday. By that time, all payments within the euro area (domestic or cross-border) will be SEPA payments and use the International Bank Account Number (IBAN).
(news article) http://www.fx-mm.com/12365/news/meps-vo ... -deadline/
(EP press release) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/p ... r-payments
(EP interview) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/h ... c-payments
After Feb-2014, banks may still allow their customers to use older account identifiers (in Germany, for example, that would be the BLZ bank code and the account number) for another two years when making a payment. But then the bank needs to "internally" convert the data to the IBAN system. This transition phase will end in Feb-2016.
Current both the BIC and the IBAN are needed when making a cross-border transfer in the euro area. As from Feb-2014 the IBAN alone will be sufficient for domestic payments; two years later the BIC will not be necessary for other euro area payments either.
Christian
Funnily enough, this deadline was originally 1.1.2010. Some time after the beginning of 2010 they noticed that apparently only Finland had obeyed it
We'll see, if this 2014 deadline will be any different from the one in 2010...
But now the deadline is part of an EU regulation, published in yesterday's Official Journal issue: