Historically, the payments infrastructure of each country in what is now the eurozone, developed in isolation in order to serve the needs of that individual country. With the execution of the Single European Payments Area (SEPA), payment infrastructure will feature the wider domain of European integration and global competition. SEPA will ensure that, wherever the euro is used as the domestic currency, any customer within the SEPA from whichever country, get the same service at the same price for eurocredit transfers, card payments, direct debits and so on. SEPA mandates that every European Financial Institution (FI) change their IT system and trade processes, requiring over 8,000 FIs to fulfill the transition by 2010.

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On 1 November 2007, the Market in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) replaced the Investment Services Directive (ISD) of 1993. This European Union legislative directive mandates that every European Financial Institution (FI) change their IT system and trade processes by 2010. MiFID is a central element of the European Commission’s Financial Services Action Plan and sets out a comprehensive regulatory regime covering investment services and financial markets. Areas of commerce affected by MiFID are pre and post-trade processing.

About MiFID