Equens Launches European Blog to Increase Awareness on SEPA

UTRECHT, the Netherlands, September 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Payment provider introduces online platform to encourage knowledge, ideas and best practices sharing

Exactly 500 days before the introduction of the Single European Payments Area (SEPA) Equens launches a European blog on this topic. The international payment provider intends to increase the sense of urgency, support the exchange of ideas and increase the level of knowledge amongst European consumers, banks and companies on SEPA.

In May 2012, the company already started a Dutch SEPA blog. Topics include best practices, tips and tricks to prepare for SEPA, the historical background of the SEPA project and new developments. Not only experts from the Equens organisation contribute to the blog; also representatives of the Dutch national bank DNB, entrepreneurs' organisation MKB-Nederland and several other partners and clients share their knowledge on the online platform.

Equens adopted the same community strategy for the English-language European blog. For the first blog post, the Chairman of the European Payments Council (EPC), Mr Javier Santamaría, is interviewed and discusses the benefits and developments of the SEPA project.

Michael Steinbach, CEO of Equens: "There are only 500 days left until February 1, 2014, the end-date for migration to SEPA credit transfers and direct debits in euros. This may seem like a long period, but we are convinced that corporates and banks really need this amount of time for a proper preparation. When prepared properly, SEPA will offer many advantages to both European companies and consumers including an increased competition and offering of payment services across Europe. It will also facilitate cross-border business. Here at Equens, we have built our expertise in over 40 years in the payment industry overall, and in particular in SEPA, as an early adopter from the first day in January 2008 onwards. Together with our partner organisations that are involved in the introduction of SEPA, we will be sharing our mutual knowledge and experience on our blog and facilitate the transition to SEPA."

The European blog can be found at: http://blog.equens.com/eu

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About Equens

Equens SE is one of the largest payment processors in Europe, leading the market for futureproof payment and card solutions. Thanks to an extensive and competitive range of services, the company seamlessly meets the requirements and wishes of the European payments market.

Equens supports the development of a single, uniform European payments market (SEPA), and is dedicated to the standardisation and harmonisation of European and global payments. With clients and partnerships in multiple European countries, the company offers pan-European market coverage from offices in four countries - the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Finland. And with an annual processing volume of 9.9 billion payments and 4.1 billion POS and ATM transactions, Equens SE has a European market share of more than 12.5%. For additional information, please visit http://www.equens.com.