20.3.2014 Official Journal of the European Union L 84/1 (Legislative acts) | REGULATIONS REGULATION (EU) No 248/2014 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 26 February 2014 amending Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 as regards the migration to Union-wide credit transfers and direct debits (Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 114 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments, Having regard to the opinion of the European Central Bank (?), Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1), Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (3), Whereas: (1)  Together with Regulation (EC) No 924/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council (}), Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (%) constitutes an important building block in the completion of a single euro payments area (SEPA), where no distinction between cross-border and national () Not yet published in the Official Journal. (3) Position of the European Parliament of 4 February 2014 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and decision of the Council of 18 February 2014. Regulation (EC) No 924/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 September 2009 on cross-border payments in the Community and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2560/2001 (O] L 266, 9.10.2009, p. 11). Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2012 establishing technical and business requirements for credit transfers and direct debits in euro and amending Regulation (EC) No 924/2009 (O] L 94, 30.3.2012, p. 22). — = — = ) payments in euro is to be made. The main objective of Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 is the migration from national credit transfer and direct debit schemes to harmonised SEPA credit transfer (SCT) and SEPA direct debit (SDD) schemes, inter alia, by providing Union citizens with a unique international bank account number (IBAN) that can be used for all SCTs and SDDs denominated in euro. Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 has provided for the SEPA migration to take place by 1 February 2014 in order to allow payment service providers and payment service users sufficient time to adapt their processes to the technical requirements that the migration to SCT and SDD entail. Since the adoption of Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 the Commission and the European Central Bank have closely monitored the progress of SEPA migration. Several meetings with Member States, national public authorities and market participants have been held. The European Central Bank has regularly published progress reports on SEPA migration on the basis of payment data collected by national central banks. Those reports indicate that a number of Member States in the euro area are well on track with migration rates for SCT currently close to 100 %. The large majority of payment service providers have reported that they are already SEPA-compliant. However, in several other Member States the migration rates are lagging behind expectations. This is particularly the case for SDD. On 14 May 2013, the ECOFIN Council in its conclusions again stressed the importance of SEPA migration. It was noted that the SEPA migration was far from complete and that immediate efforts would be required by all market participants to complete SEPA migration in time. An action plan was adopted in which merchants, corporates, SMEs and public administrations were invited to immediately take the necessary concrete internal steps to adapt their processes and inform their clients of their IBAN details.