EBICS 3.0 entered into force in France on 27 November last year. A good two months have passed since then and we think this is a good time to assess the progress of the migration to the new version. The aim of this new version is to harmonise EBICS and thus ensure the following:
- a uniform EBICS version in all countries in which EBICS is used
- uniform identification of BTF (Business Transaction Formats)
- a uniform X.509 format for filing the key
The date of entry into force only applies to French financial institutions and is not mandatory for corporate customers. The latter can decide for themselves when they would like to migrate.
The big French financial institutions have been working on the migration projects for several months and most of them are now able to offer their customers the EBICS 3.0 channel. The others are in the final testing phase and will soon be opening the EBICS 3.0 channel.
The smaller financial institutions have not reached this stage yet. Only a few have started their migration projects and much suggests that they will only be able to offer the EBICS 3.0 channel in a few months' time, possibly even in 2020.
However, these differences in time implementation should not pose a hindrance to corporate customers keen to migrate to EBICS 3.0 in the near future. For in a transition phase of some length, even financial institutions that have already migrated to EBICS 3.0 will continue to support the 2.4.2 version that has been in force since EBICS was introduced in France (version 2.5 is currently used in Germany). This transition phase will give corporate customers time to update their client software.
Due, however, to a lack of interest in the new version, particularly on the part of corporate customers, the transition phase could drag on. To prevent this from happening, the financial institutions can offer their corporate customers additional services that will become possible with the extensions of the new version. These include simpler setup of transfers and the electronic distributed signature. The latter allows corporate customers to sign orders asynchronously after file transfer (in version 2.4.2, the electronic signature had to be sent together with the order file), thereby offering them greater mobility.
The impact of this will be particularly felt when the X.509 certificates are completely virtual and the mobile signature can really be used. Experts are working on this subject and efficient solutions can therefore be expected in a few months...
Marc Dutech
