A Must Visit Website for any SEPA Implementation… 5

I know what you’re thinking, he’s going to plug his own website 😉 By now, i think we’re all realising the pain point of any implementation is the validity of the BIC information. There are of course many sites that can help you with this particular problem area. But there is one that deserves special attention for both SEPA Credit Transfer and SEPA Direct Debit implementations. It is the EBA Clearing website, which isnt particularly user friendly when you land on their home page. But if you’re looking for SEPA related information, it is a must have reference point. In this post, i will highlight where you need to go:

SEPA Implementation – SEPA Credit Transfer:

If you’re still reading its safe to say you’re going down the road of XML and intend, or indeed are being ‘asked’, to submit the creditors BIC information – you need to see if the BIC is SEPA reachable. If the BIC isnt SEPA reachable, your submitted payment will be returned / rejected. The following link identifies BIC’s that are SEPA reachable:

https://www.ebaclearing.eu/SCT-Participants-N=ae405270-9c25-4f1d-8202-960fd9da6d91-L=EN.aspx

The interesting link on the above page is the last one: STEP2 SCT Reachable PSPs List including BICs – click on the ‘+’ and it will open up a spreadsheet which is updated monthly indicating the SEPA reachable BIC’s. Cross reference this with your database BIC’s and see if they’re reachable so you are aware of which payments will fail due to this particular error.

SEPA Implementation – SEPA Direct Debit:

Oh the pain of SDD! Its no wonder the SEPA migration report published by the European Central Bank (ECB) only show 6.8% of direct debits in September 2013 were via SDD. Anyway, the link for SEPA reachable BIC’s for direct debit collections is:

https://www.ebaclearing.eu/SDD-Participants-N=SDD_Core_SDD_B2B-L=EN.aspx

If you’re implementing the SEPA direct debit CORE scheme, you’ll need the third link on the above page: SDD Core Reachable PSPs list – it also shows which BIC’s can handle the COR1 scheme. Given that it is compulsory for all eurozone banks to participate within the CORE scheme this is less interesting, but the COR1 information is useful.

Bank participation within the B2B scheme is optional. So the last link, SDD B2B Reachable PSPs list, on the above page is the most useful – it highlights those BIC’s that are participating on the SEPA Direct Debit B2B scheme. If you’re going through a B2B implementation, be sure to check out your debtor BICs on the monthly updated spreadsheet.

Let me know if you’ve discovered any other websites with useful information that will help others with their SEPA implementations…