[Dave Birch] There is a looming deadline for SEPA compliance in the cards business: by 31st December 2010, all payments cards and ATM cards in the EU27 plus Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Monaco must be EMV-compliant and all POS and ATM terminals in those countries must support EMV applications. This is extremely unlikely to happen as far as I (and other observers) can see. Currently Germany, Portugal, Italy and Slovenia have less than 80% of their cards converted and Romania, Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, Spain, Portugal and Malta have less than 40% (according to Banking Automation Bulletin for September 2010). Apart from the UK & Ireland, France and Luxembourg, no countries have 100% POS compliance (in Germany it's not even 10%). Additionally, many countries do not have ATM compliance, including Germany, Belgium, Italy and Portugal.
Why the slow progress? And what does it mean for the future? Well, I was invited along to a meeting of experts to discuss the progress towards SEPA and eSEPA (SEPA for the internet and mobile payments), but unfortunately I've been told by the Commission that the discussions were confidential and so I can't comment on them here.
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