SEPA Credit Transfer – A Quick Overview 14

There is alot of blurb out there about SEPA Payments, SEPA Credit Transfers – SCT. You can spend hours reading that, here i want to cut to the chase and give you a quick overview of some of the information i have found most useful.

SEPA Credit Transfers:

Key points that i have paid particular attention to inlcude:

  • Probably stating the obvious, but SEPA Credit Transfers only affect payments in Euro‘s where the payer and payees bank is located in the EEA (European Economic Area)
  • SEPA Payments must be delivered to the bank / Payment Service Providers (PSP’s) in the SEPA ISO XML format
    • sometimes the language used is confusing, but basically SEPA ISO XML = PAIN.001
      • PAIN.001 is a ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) XML (technical format) message for SEPA payment initiation
    • Check what version of the PAIN.001 you’re source system / ERP system can produce, and verify it with what your bank can accept / process
    • Also, keep in mind that some banks will accept legacy (your existing, non-SEPA formatted) files. You need to check this out with your bank – they’ll probably charge you an arm and a leg for their conversion services, but its good to know whats possible!
  • Bank Identifier Codes (BIC) / International Bank Account Number (IBAN) under SEPA are mandatory
    • You need to think about how you will collect your suppliers BIC / IBAN numbers
    • Will your business system / ERP store the BIC & IBAN information?
    • Will you use:
      • An online calculator to determine the BIC and IBAN
      • A third party company to convert your existing bank account details to BIC/IBAN?
      • There are many options here….
    • More on this very soon…..

I expect the above list will change as i learn more, and progress through different implementations. Let me know what SEPA Credit Transfer information you have found most useful….

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