SEPA implementation in Lithuania

At the end of 2007, domestic commercial banks, foreign bank branches, the Association of Lithuanian Banks and the Bank of Lithuania established the SEPA Coordination Committee. Seven working groups were created to deal with specific tasks. The Committee prepared and approved the Plan of Replacement of Payment Instruments with SEPA Payment Instruments in Lithuania. The aim of this document is to inform market participants about the progress made in the preparation for the SEPA project. SEPA plan discusses the issues related to the legal environment, credit transfers, direct debit, payment cards, infrastructure, information standards and formats and communication on SEPA. The Plan was updated at the end of 2010.

See the Plan of Replacement of Payment Instruments with SEPA Payment Instruments (2007, v.1)
The updated version of the Paln will be presented at earliest convenience.

The current goal of the Committee is to ensure, within its competence, the compliance with this plan until the existing payment instruments in the market are largely replaced with SEPA payment instruments. The future goal should be the inclusion of more participating institutions into the SEPA project and the attraction of various groups of payment service users or associations representing these groups: consumers, small and medium-sized enterprises, large enterprises, developers of IT services and other interested parties.

Banks intending to process SEPA credit transfers have to sign a SEPA credit transfer agreement. According to the information of the Association of Lithuanian Banks, this agreement has been already signed by:
“Swedbank”, AB;
AB DNB bankas;
Nordea Bank Finland Plc Lithuania branch;
AB “Citadele” bankas;
Danske Bank A/S Lithuania branch;
AB SEB bankas;
AB Šiaulių bankas;
AS “UniCredit Bank” Lithuania branch;
AB Ūkio bankas.