In an increasingly digital world, technology and consumer needs change rapidly. The EPC regularly updates its schemes in order to adapt and remain at the forefront of payments technology.
The EPC payment schemes are updated every two years to reflect market needs and evolutions in the technical standards developed by international standards bodies, such as the International Organization for Standardization. This evolution is guided through a transparent change-management process, open to all stakeholders:
In line with its commitment to transparency, the EPC publishes its position on each change request after the public consultation comment received during the public consultation, so that all stakeholders know why their change requests propositions were taken forward or set aside.
EPC payment scheme evolution calendar
The first step of the EPC payment scheme evolution process is the call for change requests for the SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT), SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst), SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) Core, the SDD Business-to-Business and the One-Leg Out Instant Credit Transfer (OCT Inst) rulebooks. For the 2024 change management cycle, this step ended on 31 December 2023 with the receipt of various 2024 change requests.
The second step involves a three-month public consultation, starting on 12 March and ending on 09 June 2024 at 17h00 CET. The EPC will then review the collected comments from this consultation. The EPC Multi-Stakeholder Groups will be consulted on the outcome of this public consultation and decisions on each submitted change request will be made towards the end of the summer of 2024.
The third step consists of the formal preparation and publication of the next version of the EPC payment scheme rulebooks and the related implementation guidelines. This step ends in November 2024.
Any stakeholder interested can submit their change requests by using this template. These change requests will then be considered for the 2026 change management process cycle.
- Until 31 December 2023
Call for change requests - Between 12 March and 09 June 2024
Three-month public consultation - November 2024
Publication of the next rulebook (entering into force on 05 October 2025)
