June 2008 edition

Table of contents

Editorial by Zeno Bauer, Head Product Management, Zurich Kantonalbank

Liechtenstein – From a SEPA perspective
The Principality forms an economic and currency union with Switzerland and – unlike Switzerland – is a member of the European Economic Area (EEA). The membership in two separate integrated areas is unique for a European country. We discuss how and why this affects the Principality’s participation in SEPA with Michael Lauber, Director of Liechtenstein Bankers’ Association.

SEPA up and running
Taking stock after the first one hundred days: The Single Euro Payments Area Credit Transfer Scheme is running surprisingly smoothly according to the Swiss financial institutions.

E-Invoicing and SEPA match up
In addition to mobile payments, e-invoicing will be standardized and introduced Europe-wide under the e-SEPA term. The EU authorities anticipate savings of twice as much as in the SEPA core businesses.

TARGET2-Securities before kick-off
The European Central Bank will decide in July 2008 whether the securities settling system "TARGET2-Securities" will be realized. Swiss market players participated in developing the user specifications.

European runner-up Switzerland
When it comes to the number of transactions processed by European countries’ respective RTGS systems, Switzerland comes in a close second after the Czech Republic.

CLS has the FX market sewn up
The worldwide settlement and clearing system for Forex transactions was conceived and brought live with the hope of capturing an average of 45,000 FX trades per day in seven currencies. In five years, Continuous Linked Settlements (CLS) exceeded all expectations.

Contactless – A touch less cash
Those hitting the slopes have known it for years. Now, more than a million ticket holders will experience it at the European soccer championship in Switzerland and Austria in June: Contactless access. The same technology was successfully tested for touchless payment of bratwurst and Birchermuesli.