Brussels, 8th May 2007

Arthur Dr. WinterDirectorate General for Information Technology Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance

SEPA in the AustrianFederal Administration

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• Basis for e-government

• Reduction of administrative expense

• Open access for citizens and business

(e.g. online transfers)

Cashless Payments ...Benefits

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• Data protection and data security:

precondition to acceptance

• Standards in payment formats

... Cashless Payments ...Preconditions

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• Bulk payments via the bank of the Federal Administration- currently EDIFACT- in future also SEPA 20022

• Payment on schedule- SWIFT- in future also STEP.at

• Incoming payments- credit and debit cards- eps-online transfers- paybox- prepaid cards

... Cashless PaymentsPayment Flows

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• The Federal Ministry of Finance will promote theintroduction of SEPA payments in Austria

• Startup of projects for the timely implementation of SEPA in the Austrian public administration including the following topics- Implementation of legal issues according to the European Payment

Council (EPC) and the Austrian Payment Council (APC)

- Reorganization of the payment systems of the Austrian public administration to the international XML-Standard ISO 20022 to ensurecompliant data exchange with SEPA

- Introduction of IBAN/BIC to all applications of the Austrian public administration

- Unification and standardization of the internal payment flows

- Integration of STEP.at in the Austrian Federal Finance Agency

SEPA - Federal AdministrationThe role of the Federal Ministry of Finance

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SEPA - Federal AdministrationSchedule

2007 2008 2009

Q2Q1 Q3 Q4 Q2Q1 Q3 Q4 Q2Q1 Q3

Introduction of STEP.at

Reorg. of the payment processing system to ISO 20022

1st applications1) Introduction of IBAN, BIC + 2) Reorganisation to ISO 20022

2nd applications1) Introduction of IBAN, BIC 2) Reorganisation to ISO 20022

Evaluation of legal issues

1) 2)

2)1)

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• > 1,500 Federal accounts

• > 30 applications in the Austrian Federal Administration- family allowances- pensions for retired officials, pensions for disabled people- salaries for federal employees- levying of duties - tax adjustments for employees- unemployment benefits- university fees- alimony advance payments

• > 50 m transactions p.a.

• > 200,000 account statements p.a.

SEPA - Federal Administration quantity structure in payments processing

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SEPA - Federal Administrationtechnical basis (status quo)

Paymentprocessing

systemof the

Austrian Federal Administration

levying of dutiesData exchange viaInhouse-Format (SV3+)

Data exchange viaEDIFACT

BAWAG/PSK

pensions forretired officials

salaries forfederal employees

universitysemester fees

....

....

Federal Investment certificates

family allowances

unemploymentbenefits

OeNB(Austrian National Bank)Data exchange via

SWIFT

Paymentsby citicens

Payments for universityfees

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SEPA - federal administrationtechnical basis (planned)

Paymentprocessing

systemof the

Austrian federaladministration

Data exchange viaInhouse-Format (SV3+)using IBAN, BIC

Data exchange based onISO 20022 (SEPA)

BAWAG/PSK

OeNB(Austrian National Bank)Data exchange via

STEP.at

Paymentsby citicens

Payments for universitysemester fees

levying of duties

pensions forretired officials

salaries forfederal employees

universitysemester fees

....

....

Federal Investment certificates

family allowances

unemploymentbenefits

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• EDIFACT- Enables electronic payment processing on the one hand between

companies and on the other hand between companies and publicauthorities via electronic data interchange (EDI)

- (EDIFACT) is used as a standard data format in Austrian financialinstitutions for payment processing

- Processe the data exchange between customer and bank and between banks with international standardized messages.

• Data exchange with EDIFACT in the Austrian Federal Administration- Delivery of cash and cashless transactions to banks as PAYMUL

messages- Direct debits to banks are processed as DIRDEB messages- Retour files from banks as CREMUL messages for incoming

payments

SEPA - federal administrationEDIFACT

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• Features of STEP.at- Clearing and settlement platform of the Austrian national bank- Support of data exchange formats (SWIFT, EDIFACT + SEPA formats)

& Standards (IBAN & BIC)- “Almost Real Time”: presumably 3 clearing-cycles enable same-day

processing- Continuous delivery of payment orders as well as straight-through

processing (STP)

• Introduction of STEP.at in the Austrian federaladministration- Additional platform for payment processing- Implementation in the application“Federal Investment certificates“- Acceleration and cost reduction in the payment procesing of the

austrian federal administration- Usage of retour files (electronic statements) via STEP.at

SEPA - Federal Administration Introduction of STEP.at

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• The Federal Ministry of Finance pioneers theintroduction of SEPA

• Implementation of SEPA in the AustrianFederal together with competent partners

• Standardization of cashless payments in theEuropean area (ISO 20022)

• Uniform rules for payments- bank transfers, direct debiting, payment by debit card

• Vision - Europe as the strongest economicarea by 2010

Cashless PaymentsIntroduction of SEPA

Bruessels, 8th May 2007

Thank you for your attention!

Arthur WinterDirectorate General for Information Technology

Austrian Federal Ministry of FinanceArthur.Winter@bmf.gv.at