Due to our coming from the financial services sector we should be allowed to use this panel outline as an opportunity to open the discussion on e-invoices in relation to payments.  Payments are what we call mass services and are still a core banking business. Today we can not imagine doing them without electronic information support. In our general consciousness the use of electronic information support in business processes management is a model of rationality and effectiveness.

Even when, within economic and public sector, electronic information support can lead to comprehensive integration of individual processes (respecting always their vertical and horizontal structures), payments are always (due to the nature of money) done by separate institution – by a bank.

This special position of banks should not be understood as an obstacle, but as an opportunity for mediation between economics sectors. Large corporations and the Public Sector have already started to use eInvoice  and have  necessary IT skills. The Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) need to have a cost-efficient and no-IT-skill-needed-tool to receive and send eInvoices. That tool can be eg. a web-bank solution. In that way we get all economics sectors with.

eInvoice is an instrument predestinated for banks, which have all the necessary infrastructures needed for eInvoices mediation. The effectiveness of this infrastructure would be significantly increased when the eInvoice is formatted and recognized like a payment order.

Today, when talking about payments in Europe, we can not do it without mentioning the SEPA project. The main goal the SEPA project is to establish a unique Euro payment area (with standardized payment instruments, schemes and infrastructures). The SEPA project is a new dimension in economies of scale.

After this introduction, the following questions are in front of us: