What is EDIBOP ?

Edibop is a fast, easy, and cost-efficient way for the collection, compilation, and transmission of the Balance of Payments data.

"The realisation of the EDIBOP project will greatly facilitate the work of both enterprises and banks providing Balance of Payments information. It will allow to compile this information at the national level at low costs and improve the quality of this information.

The use of EDIFACT is a modern way for exchanging information. More and more Enterprises and Banks will use this new instrument for their own needs. Being for commercial or financial purposes, more and more EDIFACT messages are being used: to send/receive invoices, to settle payments, to make orders, or for transportation, etc.

Within these circumstances, it was natural that administrations tried to integrate their demands in order to make them easier to enterprises and banks. For this reason Eurostat (the statistical office of the European Commission) has very much encouraged the developments of such messages.

Integrated cheap software are now available on the market to be used to transmit EDIFACT messages for multipurposes (commercial, financial and administrative).

Enterprises and banks will benefit from them, not paying additional costs for administrative purpose". [J.-C. Roman, Head of unit Balance of Payments, Eurostat]

EDIBOP is supported by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities. It is part of the IDA programme (Interchange of Data between Administrations), in the DSIS framework (Distributed Statistical Information Services). It is managed by consultants from Cap Gemini Belgium.

EDIBOP progress status is presented at the bi-annual meetings of the European Board for EDI Standardisation (EBES), Experts Group 6 (EG6 « Statistics »), Working Group 6 (WG6 « Balance of Payments Statistics »).