When the Single Euro Payments Area system goes into effect in February 2014, it could expose errors like out-of-date account data in the records of many European countries, costing them up to 20 billion euros ($25.8 billion) in fees, according to a study by  Experian, an information services company, Finextra reports.

Experian looked at more than half a million bank account records from European businesses and found that 12% of current electronic payments denominated in euros contain data errors that could interfere with the transfer of funds under SEPA.

Experian says that only 65% of transactions included fully accurate information about the destination account, and 45% of the international bank account numbers (IBANs) European companies have stored lack a valid bank identifier code (BIC), which is needed to complete transactions.

Such data problems could lead to failed payments, at a cost of about 50 euros ($65) a pop, for a total bill of more than 20 billion euros a year, according to Experian.

See the full story here and Experian's press release here.

For previous coverage of this issue, see SEPA Deadlines Mean IT Challenges and SEPA's Tight Deadline.