23 January 2014 Important message regarding SEPA migration end date for corporates in Germany

In its statement of January 22, 2014 the German SEPA Council (SEPA-Rat) has confirmed that electronic payments in the existing legacy format can still be accepted after the SEPA migration end date of February 1. This exclusively relates to credit transfers and direct debits under the collection authorization procedure (Einzugsermächtigungsverfahren), but not to direct debits under the debit order procedure (Abbuchungsauftragsverfahren). With this decision, the German SEPA Council follows the proposal made by the European Commission on January 9, 2014 to allow a transition period until August 1, 2014. Deutsche Bank will comply with this decision and will continue to accept and process electronically submitted credit transfers and direct debits in their legacy format (for direct debits under the collection authorization procedure, i.e. Einzugsermächtigungsverfahren) after February 1, 2014.

The German SEPA Council (SEPA-Rat), a body representing the banking industry as well as end-users which is co-chaired by the German Central Bank (Bundesbank) and the Federal Ministry of Finance, has declared that the German banking industry will set-up the preconditions required by banks and savings banks (Sparkassen) to continue processing legacy payments submitted by companies, associations and public authorities in the legacy format after February 1, 2014. Legal basis for the processing of those payments will be the existing terms and conditions that are in place until January 31, 2014. Existing direct debit mandates under the collection authorization procedure (Einzugsermächtigungen) will remain valid.
This means that there will be a dual phase until August 1, 2014 where legacy payments as well as SEPA payments will be accepted and processed. 

In line with the announcement by the German SEPA Council, Deutsche Bank will continue to process your electronically submitted legacy credit transfers and direct debits (direct debits under the collection authorization procedure only, i.e. Einzugsermächtigungsverfahren) in their existing legacy formats after the migration end date of February 1, 2014 (as per EU Regulation 260/2012). Direct debits under the debit order procedure (Abbuchungsauftragslastschriftverfahren) will be discontinued from February 1, 2014 and will not be supported during the transition period.

Deutsche Bank recommends its clients to stay the course in their SEPA migration projects and focus on the SEPA migration end date of February 1, 2014 in order to finalize their SEPA migration project as soon as possible.

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