A new era for European payments
The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is the largest payments initiative ever undertaken in European Union (EU), currently covering the 36 European countries: the 27 EU Member states (incl. several territories belonging to these countries) plus Andorra, Iceland, Monaco, Norway, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the Vatican City State.
The initiative is driven by the European Payments Council and the aim of SEPA is to harmonise electronic euro payments in Europe and thereby to enable companies, public authorities and individuals to issue and receive payments within countries of the SEPA zone faster, safer and in a more efficient way. This is achieved upon an agreement on a common set of data (ISO 20022 XML message standard), maximum value days, transparency of charged fees etc.
There are four different euro payment schemes:
SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT)
SCT is an electronic payment from one bank account to another. SCTs can be one-off or recurring payments (for example, a standing order to pay the monthly rent of an apartment or to regularly transfer money to a savings account). Likewise, single or bulk payments (such as one debit from the payer’s account with multiple credits to different beneficiaries) are supported. The deadline for SCT in the euro area was 1st of February, 2014 and for non-euro area the 31st of October, 2016. As of these dates, the existing national euro credit transfer schemes have been replaced by SCT.
SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) and B2B
SDD consists of two services- CORE and B2B. Main target market for Core scheme is retail and private customers, whereas B2B scheme is targeting direct debits between corporates. The main difference between the two services is primarily related to debtor's refund rights, technically the two services are based on the same formats. The deadline for the two SDD schemes in the euro area was 1st of February, 2014 and for non-euro area the 31st of October, 2016. As of these dates, the existing national euro direct debit schemes have been replaced by SDD.
SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst)
The SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme, which officially was launched in November 2017, enables euro credit transfers with the funds made available on the account in less than ten seconds at any time and in an area that will progressively span over the 34 SEPA countries. All payment service providers (PSP) are invited to adhere to the scheme as soon as possible, however this is not a compulsory scheme.
Technical implementation of SEPA Direct Debit Service
This resource area is designed to provide ERP vendors and IT staff with the necessary information and tools to support the implementation and use of SEPA Direct Debit Service.
Below you will find information such as service description, implementation guide and test tool.
