OREANDA-NEWS. On 1 February 2014, Estonia will switch over to the new pan-European settlement standard SEPA. A proposal of the European Commission to give an extra transition period of six months for all banks will not entail any readjustments of the action plan in Estonia; still the terms and conditions of several SEB services and products will change as of 1 February 2014.

Most significant changes are the following:

the international account number IBAN will be taken into use;

the domestic payment adopts a single payment standard, European payment (SEPA payment);

the domestic settlement system shall be closed and all interbank payments shall be made via the pan-European settlement system, as a result of which the movement of payments will slow down (instead of the previous 10 times, the settlements will take place 5 times a day);

business customers will have to make preparations to ensure that the ISO format file exchange with the bank is taken into use by 1 February 2015 at the latest;

the direct debit order service is cancelled and a changeover to the e-invoice service is undertaken.

Private individuals do not have to engage in any additional activities, the necessary changes will be made on their behalf. For example, the bank will convert the current account number in old format automatically into the new format in the Internet Bank. Also switch from the direct debit to e-invoice will be automatic, if the beneficiary has requested it.

Those companies, who will not switch to e-invoice, have informed their customers hereof either personally or via the bank. In this case there are alternative possibilities instead of the former direct debit service, such as to making the transfer either in Internet Bank or at a bank office or as a predefined payment in ATM.

All changes are described in more detail on our homepage at www.seb.ee/eng/everyday-banking/accounts-and-settlements/sepa-information.

In case of questions or problems concerning the new settlement standard or the transition, please contact your Client Executive, call the Customer Support on 665 5100 or visit your nearest SEB branch.