In November 2024, the European Payments Council (EPC) released version 2.0 of the EPC guidance document on the provision of addresses under the EPC payment schemes.
This document results from the EPC decision taken in September 2024 to introduce the possibility for payment end-users to provide an address of the payer and/or of the payee in a hybrid format alongside the already existing possibilities of submitting an address either in a fully structured format or in an unstructured format.
The EPC took this decision following the outcome of the public consultation on the submitted 2024 EPC payment scheme rulebook change requests. Important: the EPC decided that as of 22 November 2026, the provision of an address in an unstructured format will no longer be allowed. As of that date onwards, only the fully structured and hybrid address formats will be allowed.
This document provides detailed guidance about the provision of the address of the payer and of the payee, in a structured, hybrid, or unstructured format (the latter format only permitted until 22 November 2026) under all five 2025 EPC payment scheme rulebooks.
This version also now includes dedicated sub-sections related to One-Leg Out Instant Credit Transfer (OCT Inst) instructions.