SEPA Credit Transfer

SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT)

In January 2008, more than 4,300 banks in 32 countries representing roughly 95 percent of payment volumes in Europe took a historical first step to starting SEPA by launching the SEPA Credit Transfers Scheme (SCT) for euro payments.

The SCT Scheme in a Nutshell

The SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme enables payment service providers to offer a core and basic credit transfer service throughout SEPA, whether for single or bulk payments. The scheme's standards facilitate payment initiation, processing and reconciliation based on straight-through-processing (STP). The scope is limited to payments in euro within SEPA countries. The credit institutions executing the credit transfer must be scheme participants; that is, both must have formally adhered to the SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme. There is no cap on the amount of a payment carried out under the scheme.

The SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme Rulebook and the accompanying Implementation Guidelines are the definitive sources of information regarding the rules and obligations of the Scheme. In addition, a document entitled "Shortcut to the SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme" is available which provides basic information on the characteristics and benefits of the SCT Scheme (see below).