National Bank: SEPA integration saved citizens and businesses more than €5 million

The National Bank of North Macedonia has marked one year since the country’s membership in the Single Euro Payments Area, SEPA, was activated, describing the step as part of the European integration of the country’s domestic payments infrastructure.

According to the central bank, the main benefit of this integration is the facilitation of cross-border euro transfers with the 40 countries participating in SEPA. Citizens and companies can make payments more quickly and easily, and at significantly lower cost, under conditions similar to those applied in the European Union.

The National Bank said that the savings generated through the use of SEPA have exceeded €5 million. Since September 2026, more than 581,000 transactions have been carried out through the system, with a total value of approximately €11 billion.

“Compared with the correspondent banking system, fees for citizens have fallen by up to six times, while those for companies have fallen by up to nine times,” the National Bank said. According to the bank, savings are expected to increase as the use of the SEPA channel expands. This could encourage new investment among companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, and directly contribute to growth in households’ disposable income.

In less than a year since membership, SEPA has become the main channel for sending and receiving cross-border euro payments through domestic banks.

“Since September 2026, transactions carried out through SEPA accounted for 69% of the total number of incoming and outgoing cross-border euro payments. Their share was almost the same for outgoing payments, at 67%, and incoming payments, at 70%. This shows that citizens and businesses are increasingly using this channel both to transfer and to receive money from abroad,” representatives of the National Bank said.

The system’s importance is also confirmed by the amounts processed. More than half of the value of incoming cross-border euro payments and over 70% of the value of outgoing payments are now carried out through SEPA, the central bank representatives added.