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Toolkit for new Verification of Payee scheme participants

VOP

All current and future SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) and/or SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme participants affected by the amended SEPA Regulation provisions on verification of payee must adhere to the Verification Of Payee (VOP) scheme, register into and fund the EPC Directory Service (EDS). 

Since the VOP scheme is new and will rely on a new centralised EDS that requires updates from VOP scheme applicants, the adherence process has also been modified accordingly. 

In fact, the VOP scheme adherence process will consist in two steps: 

  1. Documental adherence- submission and approval of the adherence documents;
  2. EDS onboarding and update - In case of successful application confirmed by the EPC:
    -the applicants should perform a self-registration process in EDS;
    -the applicants (or the RVM(s) acting on behalf) should update the EDS in self-service mode, inserting their own reachability data (additional BICs, URIs ...);
    - the applicants (or the RVM(s) acting on behalf) should complete the Operational Readiness Date (ORD) in the EDS to make themselves reachable;

The EDS and the second step of the adherence process (EDS onboarding and update) is not available yet. The EPC will communicate when the EDS will become available and at that moment, the applicants which will have successfully completed the first step of the adherence process will receive their access to the EDS to proceed with the second step.

The following infographic will guide you through the main steps to become a VOP scheme participant:

To avoid an overload of adherence requests close to the effective date of the VOP scheme (i.e., 5 October 2025) and give sufficient time to the applicants to make a proper EDS onboarding and update, the EPC distinguishes three adherence waves:

waves

Participation in the EPC VOP does not require EPC membership. The first step in adhering to the EPC VOP scheme is to download the Guide to the VOP scheme adherence process.

The Guide details the eligibility criteria and the instructions for completing the adherence pack. It also lists the information and documents that the scheme applicants have to provide to substantiate their adherence.