The first step in SEPA was the Euro, the second one was IBAN and SCT/SDD schemes implementation, and I propose the third one is enabling inclusion and mobility.

As I stumbled across the article from Lars Markull, “Brief history of IBANs and current Fintech challenges” it stirred up some thinking and ideas I was having in the past.

The article is a great source on what exactly IBANs are, but that is irrelevant for the end user. The interesting part is the struggle these have had with the change from their regular and accustomed (local) BBAN to the (worldwide) standardised IBAN. This struggle is still happening on a day to day basis for a lot of people, but over time is less visible (people get by, they ‘survive’). It’s like most people above a certain age are used to think of value or relative value in their local currency still, even though the Euro was introduced in 2002 already.