Fundtech Ltd., a provider in global corporate banking services, announced the results of a survey it conducted among its European clients, which uncovered some strong opinions about the affects of SEPA on banks, as well their vision of future strategy related to mobile banking and EIPP.
Among the results, 63% of participants felt the impact of SEPA would be considerable on their organisation’s profits. Additionally, 44% predicted it would take longer than five years to replace the lost revenue resulting from the SEPA pricing mandates. Thirteen percent said they will never be able to recover the lost revenue.
On a more positive note, 61% of bankers surveyed see electronic invoice presentment and payments (EIPP) as both a revenue and cost saving opportunity. Survey participants see significant growth in the adoption of EIPP over the next three years. Thirty-eight percent say between a quarter and half of their customers will adopt the service, while 15 percent believe that over 50% will adopt it.
There were also comments on mobile banking. Bankers see mobile banking as a long-term play. Thirty-four percent say it will take three to five years for mobile banking to be a meaningful contributor to their company’s bottom line and 38% say that it will be longer than five years. Twenty-two percent forecast it will never be a meaningful contributor.
“The results come from a broad spectrum of banks throughout Europe, and as such, provide insights into the industry’s current thinking. Clearly the participants forecast revenue challenges with SEPA that may never be reconciled, but they also see short-term opportunity with the growth of EIPP,” says George Ravich, chief marketing officer, Fundtech.
The study was conducted during Fundtech’s International Client Forum held in London in February. Fifty-seven banking executives participated in the anonymous survey.
Additional findings are as follows:
* Forty-one percent predicted that the SEPA Direct Debit deadline will be delayed past November 2009. Only five percent said there was “no way” the deadline would be extended.
* The vast majority, 82%, say they will maintain the same staffing levels in preparation of SEPA Direct Debits.
* Seventy eight percent have already purchased or built their solution for SEPA Credit Transfers, and 83% for SEPA Direct Debits.
* Standards for new SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) technology are becoming common. Twenty-three percent of the banks said that they currently do have standards which mandate that all new applications must use SOA; 23% are developing this standard.
* Bankers report that their STP (Straight Through Processing) rates are high: 59% say they have better than 70% STP rates, and 13% say they have a 90% or better rate.