For several years, Treasury& Risk has covered the impending Single Euro PaymentsArea (SEPA). We've explained the technical details of how systems need to change toaccommodate SEPA credit transfers and SEPA direct debits. We'vediscussed ways in which some companies are leveraging their compliance efforts toimprove payment processes across Europe and beyond. We coveredfearslast fall that businesses would be unprepared to comply by theFebruary 1, 2014 deadline. And then, of course, we covered theextension of the deadline to August of this year.

Now that we're six weeks past the original SEPA compliancedeadline, we thought it would be a good time to take the pulse onhow large corporates are faring. To what degree are European credittransfers and direct debits SEPA-compliant today? And to whatdegree have organizations taken the extra step of improvingaccounts receivable (A/R) or accounts payable (A/P) processes asthey've revamped their technology infrastructure to meet SEPArequirements? To find out, we sat down with Ad van der Poel, theBank of America Merrill Lynch product executive for payments andreceivables global transaction services for Europe, the MiddleEast, and Africa (EMEA).

T&R: First of all, what is thestatus of SEPA readiness at companies across Europe rightnow?