SEPA Credit Transfer rulebook and implementation guidelines

The

SEPA Credit Transfer

rulebook currently in effect up to 19 November 2023 is the 2021

SEPA Credit Transfer

rulebook version 1.2. The version 1.2 has no specific impact on the business and operational rules compared to the version 1.1 of the 2021

SEPA Credit Transfer

rulebook.

Read more about the 2021 SCT rulebook version 1.2

The Implementation Guidelines of the version 1.2 of the 2021

SEPA Credit Transfer

rulebook are based on the relevant ISO 20022 XML message standards.

Read more about the 2021 SCT scheme Customer-to-PSP IGs version 1.0 

Read more about the 2021 SCT scheme Inter-PSP IGs version 1.0

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European Payments Council

’s Intellectual Property Rights related to its

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• To formally enable the

  SEPA Credit Transfer

  scheme to cater for both retail and Financial Institution-to-Financial Institution payment use cases, the term ‘Customer’ is replaced by the term ‘Payment Service User’ (

  Payment Service User

  ) including an appropriate definition for this new term. The definitions of the terms ‘Originator’ and ’Beneficiary’ are amended whereby also payment service providers (

  Payment Service Providers

  ) can take up these roles. Related to this, the definition of the term ‘Payment Account’ is changed indicating that such account can be held by a

  Payment Service Provider

  as well. Also, some obligations of the Originator

  Payment Service Provider

  and of the Beneficiary

  Payment Service Provider

  in the rulebook sections 5.7 and 5.8 are amended.
• Provision of the structured address of the payment service user:
  
  As of 19 November 2023, payment service users are allowed to send a structured address of the Originator and/or the Beneficiary in electronic Customer-to-

  Payment Service Provider

  files based on at least the

  European Payments Council

  SEPA Credit Transfer

  Customer-to-

  Payment Service Provider

  Implementation Guidelines (

  Implementation Guidelines

  ). From that same date, also

  SEPA Credit Transfer

  scheme participants are allowed to provide structured addresses in their Inter-

  Payment Service Provider

  SEPA Credit Transfer

  payment messages and r-transactions.
  
  In view of the above, all

  SEPA Credit Transfer

  scheme participants must be able to support the delivery of structured addresses when payment service users and

  SEPA Credit Transfer

  scheme participants want a structured address in their outgoing and incoming

  SEPA Credit Transfer

  payments.

  SEPA Credit Transfer

  scheme participants cannot reject

  SEPA Credit Transfer

  payments only due to the inclusion of a structured address.
  
  The use of an unstructured address will still be possible and supported by the

  SEPA Credit Transfer

  scheme up to and including 22 November 2025.
  
  As of 23 November 2025, the use of the structured address will become mandatory for Inter-

  Payment Service Provider

  SEPA Credit Transfer

  payment messages where applicable, and for payment service users when they send electronic Customer-to-

  Payment Service Provider

  files based on at least the

  European Payments Council

  SEPA Credit Transfer

  Customer-to-

  Payment Service Provider

  Implementation Guidelines

  . From that date, the use of an unstructured address will no longer be allowed and will hence lead to rejects.
   
• Extra clarifications about the charging principles.
   
• Inclusion of the Proxy/Alias of the payment account of the Originator and/or of the payment account of the Beneficiary as an optional attribute in certain datasets. This attribute is an element supplied by the Originator and cannot substitute the IBAN as unique identifier for a payment account.
   
• Amendments to the

  SEPA Credit Transfer

  inquiry procedure and datasets which formalise clarifications already published by the

  European Payments Council

  in the year 2021. 

Important reminder: back in 2020, the

European Payments Council

already decided upon the following changes for the 2023

SEPA Credit Transfer

rulebook: 

• Migrate all ISO 20022 standard-based XML payment messages used under the

  SEPA Credit Transfer

  scheme, to the 2019 version of the ISO 20022 standard.
• Align the attribute numbering between the four

  Single Euro Payments Area

  payment scheme rulebooks as of the respective 2023 rulebooks.

Annex IV of the 2023

SEPA Credit Transfer

rulebook version 1.0 lists all changes since the version 1.0 of the 2021

SEPA Credit Transfer

rulebook.