The need for such transaction fee is challenged by DG-COMP of the European Commission. The banking sector, the European Commission and the European Central Bank have been working towards a solution for some time, and the issue needs be resolved urgently so as not to endanger the launch of the SDD on 1 November 2009.
Despite the fact that the SEPA project has been ongoing for about seven years and that a lot of product design and standardisation work has been undertaken and completed successfully, the practical implementation and adoption of the SEPA, which is the ultimate litmus test of the success of the integration of retail payments in the euro area, is slow.