Important updates related to the EPC SEPA payment scheme rulebooks

Important updates related to the EPC SEPA payment scheme rulebooks

25 May 22

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Today the European Payments Council (EPC) published the version 1.0 of the 2023 EPC SEPA payment scheme rulebooks. All 2023 EPC SEPA payment scheme rulebooks enter into force on 19 November 2023. To ensure planning security for all market participants, the publication of the 2023 rulebook versions follows a predictable release management cycle. The related Implementation Guidelines will be based on the 2019 version of ISO 20022 and will be published on the EPC website on 22 June 2022.

More information regarding the main changes introduced in the 2023 EPC SEPA payment scheme rulebooks:

2023 SCT rulebook
2023 SCT Inst rulebook
2023 SDD Core rulebook
2023 SDD B2B rulebook

Related to the 2023 SEPA payment scheme rulebooks, the EPC also published the document Guidance on the migration to the 2019 version of the ISO 20022-based XML messaging standard. This document is addressed to SEPA payment scheme participants and payment service users on how to prepare themselves for and to handle the change-over to the 2019 version of ISO 20022 by 19 November 2023. It gives guidance to SEPA payment scheme participants and payment service users on how they can deal with the SEPA payment initiation, acceptance and processing aspects affected by the ISO version migration.

Furthermore, the EPC published the document Guidance to improve transparency for retail payment end-users. This document is relevant for both payees and SEPA payment scheme participants. It points out that existing elements in the relevant ISO 20022 standard-based XML messages used under the SEPA payment schemes can already be used to transport extra information of to whom, where and when the payer made a payment. The EPC published this document having in mind the recommendations on transparency for retail payment end-users expressed by the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB) in June 2021.

Finally, the EPC published the version 1.2 of the 2021 SEPA payment rulebook being effective from 25 April 2023 to 19 November 2023. The version 1.2 has no impact on the business and operational rules compared to the versions 1.0 and 1.1 of the 2021 rulebooks.



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