If you have ever tried to pay with your smartphone in a shop, you are familiar with ‘mobile proximity payments’. The smartphone is the device used to access payment details such as card information when executing a face-to-face transaction.

Mobile payments are soaring in Europe. The EPC aims to facilitate the use of all SEPA instruments with a mobile while ensuring the convenience, safety, reliability and cost-effectiveness of these payments.

When citizens travel in Europe or shop online on websites based in other European countries, they should be able to withdraw cash or pay by card as easily as they do in their home country.

The SEPA Direct Debit schemes (SDD) provide the sets of rules that enable a harmonised application by all participating payment service providers (PSPs) in Europe. PSPs can also provide additional services to meet specific customer needs.

The SEPA Direct Debit Business-to-Business (SDD B2B) scheme is an optional scheme, offered exclusively to business payers.

The two EPC SEPA Direct Debit schemes offer consumers and businesses a convenient and secure means of paying bills. They are used to facilitate over 21 billion transactions every year in SEPA.

The SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme will make European payments faster and ever more convenient.