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Turkey Sends Letter of Intent to Join Europe’s Biggest Payment System SEPA

Prime Highlights

  • Turkey formally submits a letter of intent to join Europe’s largest cross-border payment system, SEPA.
  • The move could save Turkish businesses and consumers significant costs on transfers with Europe.

Key Facts

  • SEPA covers 41 countries, letting people and businesses send euro payments as easily as domestic transfers.
  • Sending 1,000 to 5,000 euros between Europe and Turkey can cost up to 40 euros under current systems.

Background

Turkey has submitted a letter of intent to join the Single Euro Payments Area, a European payment system that could make cross-border transfers between Turkey and Europe faster and cheaper, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said, according to the T24 news website.

Şimşek said the membership would make cross-border payments faster, safer and lower-cost. He made the announcement following a Turkey-EU High-Level Economic Dialogue meeting in İstanbul with Valdis Dombrovskis, the European commissioner for economy and productivity.

SEPA spans 41 countries, letting individuals and businesses send cross-border euro payments under shared rules, functioning much like domestic bank transfers.

The announcement builds on earlier comments from Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who said Turkey was interested in SEPA membership and that relevant financial institutions were already working on the process.

Reuters reported that the EU had proposed Turkey’s participation in SEPA to strengthen economic ties and lower the cost of international money transfers.

Jurgis Vilcinskas, the EU’s chargé d’affaires in Ankara, said the proposal came up during a meeting between European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos and Fidan.

The European Commission noted that smaller candidate countries that recently joined SEPA, including Albania, Moldova, Montenegro and North Macedonia, could collectively save up to 500 million euros.

Vilcinskas said Turkey’s membership could similarly cut transfer costs for businesses, consumers and the Turkish diaspora across Europe.

The EU remains Turkey’s largest trading partner, with annual trade surpassing 200 billion euros. Though Turkey’s EU accession talks have stalled for years, both sides have recently intensified discussions on economic cooperation, migration, customs union modernization and regional security.