The Direct Debit ( ) Core scheme is used by thousands of payment service providers ( ) who offer individual consumers and businesses the convenience and security of euro direct debits in Europe. This page provides the information need in order to implement the scheme.
The rulebook currently in effect up to 19 November 2023 is the 2021 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 rulebook.
Read more about the 2021 SDD Core rulebook version 1.2
The Implementation Guidelines of the version 1.2 of the 2021 rulebook are based on the relevant ISO 20022 XML message standards.
Read more about the 2021 SDD Core scheme Customer-to-PSP IGs version 1.0
Read more about the 2021 SDD Core scheme Inter-PSP IGs version 1.0
Read more about the 2021 SDD Core scheme e-Mandate service IGs version 1.0
Do you want to use the ’s Intellectual Property Rights related to its payment schemes’ rulebooks and implementation guidelines for non-euro transactions? Click here for more information.
The 2023 rulebook version 1.0 enters into force on 19 November 2023 and is applicable up to and including 22 November 2025.
Read more about the 2023 SDD Core rulebook version 1.0
The Implementation Guidelines are based on the 2019 message version of the ISO 20022 standard.
Read more about the 2023 SDD Core Customer-to-PSP IGs version 1.0
Read more about the 2023 SDD Core Inter-PSP IGs version 1.0
Read more about the 2023 SDD Core e-Mandate service IGs version 1.0
The also published a separate guidance document about the migration to the 2019 message version of ISO 20022.
- To formally enable the
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’ (
) including an appropriate definition for this new term. The definitions of the terms ‘Creditor’ and ’Debtor’ are amended whereby also 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
as well. Also, some obligations of the Creditor
and of the Debtor
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 Creditor and/or the Debtor in electronic Customer-to- files based on at least the Customer-to- Implementation Guidelines ( ). From that same date, also scheme participants are allowed to provide structured addresses in their Inter- collection messages and r-transactions.
In view of the above, all scheme participants must be able to support the delivery of structured addresses when payment service users and scheme participants want a structured address in their outgoing and incoming collections. scheme participants cannot reject collections only due to the inclusion of a structured address.
The use of an unstructured address will still be possible and supported by the scheme up to and including 22 November 2025.
As of 23 November 2025, the use of the structured address will become mandatory for Inter- collection messages where applicable, and for payment service users when they send electronic Customer-to- files based on at least the Customer-to- . 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.
Important reminder: back in 2020, the already decided upon the following changes for the 2023 rulebook:
- Migrate all ISO 20022 standard-based XML payment messages used under the
scheme, to the 2019 version of the ISO 20022 standard.
- Align the attribute numbering between the four payment scheme rulebooks as of the respective 2023 rulebooks.
Annex IV of the 2023
rulebook version 1.0 lists all changes since the version 1.0 of the 2021
rulebook.
Guidance on the migration to the 2019 version of the ISO 20022-based XML messaging standard Guidance on the use of structured addresses under the SEPA payment schemes as of November 2025
Guidance to improve transparency for retail payment end-users
Guidance on reason codes for SEPA Direct Debit R-transactions
Clarification paper on SEPA Direct Debit Core and SEPA Direct Debit Business-to-Business rulebooks
Clarification Paper on the Use of Slashes in References, Identifications and Identifiers
Clarification letter on electronic mandates to SEPA Direct Debit scheme participants
Recommendation on customer reporting of SCT and SDD
Explanatory note on use of ‘COR1’ and ‘SMNDA’ in SDD R-transactions
SEPA requirements for an extended character set (UNICODE subset) – best practices
Yearly update of the Payment Threats and Fraud Trends Report