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I am former editor of The Banker, a Financial Times publication. I joined the publication in August 2015 as transaction banking and technology editor, was promoted to deputy editor in September 2016 and then to managing editor in April 2019. The crowning glory was my appointment as editor in March 2021, the first female editor in the publication's history. Previously I was features editor at Profit&Loss, editorial director of Treasury Today and editor of gtnews.com. I also worked on Banking Technology, Computer Weekly and IBM Computer Today. I have a BSc from the University of Victoria, Canada.

Friday 24 July 2009

Italian banks must do more to educate corporates on SEPA

Italian banks should be doing more to help their corporate clients prepare for the effects of the Single Euro Payments Area, said a member of the Euro-Associations of Corporate Treasurers at SIA-SSB’s International Payment Summit “Do You SEPA” in Milan. Cino Ricci, EACT deputy chairman and vice president of AITI (Italy), called on the Italian banking community to assist their corporates because companies are not ready, especially the small and medium enterprises.

“We need someone to explain SEPA to us – we need the banks. From November the banks will start to educate their own employees, but we, the corporates, are not prepared. Other countries, like Germany, believe that it is the banks’ job to educate their clients, but in Italy we aren’t talking to one another,” he said.

His appeal followed a speech by Renzo Vanetti, chief executive of Italy’s automated clearing house SIA-SSB, who said that corporates had to work hard between now and 2010 to be ready for SEPA. He believes that banks should be able to help corporates understand the benefits of the incoming regulation. “Under SEPA, corporates can move anywhere in Europe with no difference. All applications for corporate banking and cash management are the same. This gives them savings and it allows banks to follow corporates outside domestic market without any difference. SEPA gives SMEs the opportunity of working in a network between themselves, so that they can act as a bigger entity.” Vanetti said that over 80% of banks did not believe that their clients will be able to adopt SEPA by 2010.

The “Do You SEPA?” conference attracted more than 600 participants, mainly from the Italian domestic financial services industry but also from Europe-wide institutions like EBA Clearing, Deutsche Bank, Visa Europe and MasterCard Europe. Vanetti stressed that the 2008 deadline was just the beginning and that the European Community could only succeed with the SEPA migration if it focused on four Cs: consolidation, competence, cooperation, and continuity.

SIA-SSB is rising to the challenge of SEPA by expanding SIAnet, its multi-service broadband network, across Europe. The European financial sector will benefit, in addition to connectivity services, from the messaging services used within payment systems, which are capable of supporting the greater transaction volumes generated by SEPA.

Expanding outside Italy, SIAnet connects the principal European brokers for their trading activities. The network enables connection to EBA Clearing’s Step2 technology platform, the first Pan-European Automated Clearing House. At present, there are over 100 banks participating directly in Step2 that can choose to use SIAnet to manage SEPA transactions.

Focusing on the corporate market, SIA-SSB is about to launch “B-Gate”, the solution for Italian and foreign businesses enabling them access to CBI-participating banks.

“SIAnet gives everyone the possibility to use the network,” said Vanetti. “This network is able to provide many different services, such as value added services like information distribution to a stock exchange, or it can just do connectivity. It is not limited to just financial messages and the financial community, but all players in SEPA world, such as consumers and corporates, as well as banks.”

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