UTRECHT, the Netherlands, June 25 /PRNewswire/ --

- Short Implementation Time and Limited Resources Required

As one of Europe's largest payment processors, Equens is ready for the introduction of the SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) on 1 November 2009. Equens is offering banks an economical, state-of-the-art internet solution with a short time and minimal effort for implementation. With Equens' solution, banks will be able to receive SDDs and fully comply with the SDD regulations and implementation guidelines drawn up by the European Payments Council (EPC).

In contrast to the SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) launched in January 2008, the regulations banks are required to follow when processing SDDs are complex. Moreover, the initial volume of SDDs is expected to be limited. Due to the current investment climate for banks, the low volumes, and the fact the banks do not need to be fully ready to receive SDDs until 1 November 2010, Equens' solution is especially appealing. Banks can log in to the new internet solution via Equens' secure web portal to process their SDDs in an easy and user-friendly manner.

In practice

Any bank can utilise the internet solution, or 'Debtor Bank Module'. When SDDs are submitted, participating banks being debited receive a notification from Equens and determine online how these transactions should be processed. A video on the operation of the Debtor Bank Module can be viewed at http://www.equens.com/sdd.

Equens will, based on this internet solution, also offer a module that will enable to also send SDDs (Creditor Bank Module).

SEPA Direct Debit is one of the three main products of SEPA, the Single Euro Payments Area, launched on 28 January 2008 with the implementation of the SEPA Credit Transfer and already earlier with the SEPA Cards Framework. SDD provides a common standard for direct debit transactions in the European countries. These transactions are currently still processed using national systems such as Direct Debit (United Kingdom), Lastschrift (Germany) and Incasso (the Netherlands).

Note for the editorial staff

About Equens

Equens SE is the first truly pan-European, full-service payment processor. As one of the largest and most innovative payment processors in Europe, Equens is leading the market for future-proof payments and card processing solutions. Thanks to an extensive and competitive service portfolio and a flexible, customer-orientated approach, the company seamlessly meets the requirements of the European payments market. With an annual processing volume of 8.9 billion payments and 3.2 billion POS and ATM transactions, Equens has a market share of more than 12.5% within Europe. Equens has offices in four countries - the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Finland - and provides pan-European market coverage through services to clients in eight European countries.

For additional information on Equens, please visit http://www.equens.com

For additional information on Equens, please visit http://www.equens.com or contact: Marcel Woutersen, +31(0)30-283-54-27, +31(0)6-29-05-08-71; Jorg Richter, +49(0)69-589993-6036, +49(0)172-6139597