There are two types of Additional Optional Services (AOS): those proposed by communities of PSPs and those offered by individual PSPs. In both instances, AOS must neither compromise the schemes’ interoperability nor create barriers to competition. When an AOS becomes increasingly popular among scheme participants, the EPC may consider including it in the schemes in line with the principles governing their evolution.
National or pan-European communities of scheme participants can agree on an AOS that meets the needs of customers in specific geographic areas. One such AOS involves the use of additional data elements in the payment messages based on the ISO 20022 standard.
Any AOS must be transparent to all scheme participants and publicly available to these communities.
The EPC publishes the list of SDD Core and Business-to-Business AOS brought to its attention by the communities in question. The EPC is, however, not responsible for the accuracy and exhaustiveness of this list.
Belgium - Description of AOS applied to SCT and SDD - Structured remittance information 'OGM - VCS'
Greece - Description of AOS applied to SEPA Direct Debit
Italy - Description of SEPA-compliant Electronic Database Alignment (SEDA) AOS - English version of the SEDA Interbank Agreement and the SEDA Implementation Guidelines
In addition, any PSP is free to propose AOS of its own choice to enrich its SDD services and distinguish itself from its competitors, as long as these AOS respect the SDD schemes. These AOS are in the competitive space and therefore outside the EPC’s scope.