Today the European Commission decided to postpone by six month the obligation of all credit transfers and direct debits in euro to use the IBAN and BIC identifiers. The initial deadline for this switch was 1 February 2014.

This decision is a real acknowledgement of the risk that many companies were lagging behind in ensuring smooth transitions. A risk always strongly highlighted by BEUC and its members. Payments to such companies could have got lost or rerouted. For consumers this could have resulted in the failure of direct debits being honoured therefore leading to possible disruption of service (e.g. in case of an unpaid electricity invoice) or additional administration costs (e.g. due to companies sending payment reminders).