On 1 January 2021, the UK left the EU Single Market and Customs Union. In the run-up to that date, the European Payments Council (EPC) requested on several occasions all SEPA payment scheme participants to implement the measures described below, to ensure a continued smooth processing of cross-border payments involving a UK-based SEPA payment scheme participant after 31 December 2020. This is because the respective EU and UK Funds Transfer Regulations require additional information to be sent with payments into/from the UK as the UK is now a third country under those Regulations following Brexit.

SEPA transactions to be executed or settled as of 1 January 2021 involving a UK-based SEPA payment scheme participant must contain:

·       The full address details of the Originator for SCT and SCT Inst transactions;

·       The full address details of the Debtor for SDD Core and SDD B2B collections.

The EPC has been notified that some EEA-based SEPA payment scheme participants are not complying with the extra information requirements mandated under the EU Funds Transfer Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2015/847), notably regarding the need to provide the full address of the Originator/Debtor.

The EPC urges all SEPA payment scheme participants concerned to complete as soon as possible the identification of their customers with incoming and outgoing cross-border SEPA transactions involving both a UK and an EEA payment account, and to ensure that all customers concerned provide the necessary extra SEPA transaction data.