VocaLink, a payment transaction company, has completed a first SEPA Direct Debit pilot with participation from ABN Amro, Bank fur Arbeit und Wirtschaft, The Royal Bank of Scotland and a number of their corporate customers.
VocaLink noted that with less than 200 working days until the SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) go-live date of November 1, 2009, banks are under pressure to fully comply with both SDD and PSD regulations.
The VocaLink SDD pilot has allowed the three participant banks to test fully a broad range of SDD business-to-business (B2B) services in a virtual environment without internal IT changes or operational or reputational risk.
Bank fur Arbeit und Wirtschaft ran the pilot in conjunction with two of its corporate clients and is planning to start promoting the benefits of the SDD B2B services in the coming weeks.
Martin Wilson, chief commercial officer at VocaLink, said: Our SDD solution not only ensures compliance but also provides functionally rich services such as payments capture, validation, mandate management and exceptions management, enabling banks to make a real impact with their corporate customers. We are now offering new banks the opportunity to join the early adopters by participating in the next VocaLink pilot exercise.
