SEPA Creditor Identifier By Country

As the SEPA February 2016 deadline approaches, we need to remember that there are many components to a SEPA Direct Debit implementation. In the SEPA Direct Debit Key Considerations post, i’ve highlighted all of the mandatory fields that you need to capture. One of those fields is the SEPA Creditor Identifier, which i will cover here.

What is the SEPA Creditor Identifier?

In short, its a way of identifying the creditor (i.e. the party initiating the direct debit /collection). Both the Creditor Identifier and the Mandate Id gives the debtor bank (bank from whom you are collecting funds / direct debiting) the ability to check if a valid SEPA Direct Debit mandate is in place.

Keep in mind, that this check is optional under the SEPA Direct Debit Core scheme – i.e. the check will only be performed by the debtor bank if the debtor (customer who you’re debiting) specifically asks his/her bank to verify the SEPA Direct Debit Mandate has been set up OR transferred from a legacy direct debit collection process. The SEPA Direct Debit Mandate check is however compulsory under the SEPA Direct Debit B2B scheme.

The Creditor Identifier is typically assigned at a legal entity level, and is normally assigned within / by the country of the legal entity. Obtaining the Creditor Identifier differs by country, and can take anything from a few days to a few weeks. Keep in mind that in countries such as Germany, Italy and Spain where there is a need to migrate legacy direct debit schemes to SEPA direct debit scheme you should request the SEPA Creditor Id ahead of time.

SEPA Creditor Identifier By Country:

Austria – SEPA Creditor Identifier (CID):

• Get it from your in-country bank
• The Austrian Creditor Identifier (CID) is 18 characters long, where characters :
  • 1 – 2: ISO Country Code (AT – Austria)
  • 3 – 4: Check Digit
  • 5 – 7: Creditor Business Code – you (Creditor) choose this. The default is ZZZ
  • 8 – 18: Creditor National Identifier – basically a consecutive number that will be assigned to you, with leading zeros

Belgium – SEPA Creditor Identifier (CI):

• Get it from your in-country bank
• The Belgian Creditor Identifier (CI) is 20 characters long, where characters :
  • 1 – 2: ISO Country Code (BE – Belgium)
  • 3 – 4: Check Digit
  • 5 – 7: Creditor Business Code – you (Creditor) choose this. The default is ZZZ
  • 8 – 18: Creditor National Identifier – in Belgium, this could be:
    • VAT number, if applicable
    • Where no VAT number is available the bank will assign this as follows – characters:
      • 8-10: Bank Identifier
      • 11: Fixed Value – ‘D’
      • 12-20: Consecutive number provided by the bank

France – SEPA Creditor Identifier:

• Get it from your in-country bank
  • Note: Your bank will request the Creditor Identifier from the French Central Bank (Banque de France)
• The French Creditor Identifier is 13 characters long, where characters :
  • 1 – 2: ISO Country Code (FR – France)
  • 3 – 4: Check Digit
  • 5 – 7: Creditor Business Code – you (Creditor) choose this. The default is ZZZ
  • 8 – 18: Creditor National Identifier – in France this will be your NNE (Numéro National d’Emetteur)

Germany  – SEPA Creditor Identifier:

• You (the Creditor) will have to request the SEPA Creditor Identifier via the Deutsche Bundesbank’s website via either of the following links:
  • Bundesbank SEPA Creditor Identifier
• The German Creditor Identifier is 18 characters long, where characters :
  • 1 – 2: ISO Country Code (DE – Germany)
  • 3 – 4: Check Digit
  • 5 – 7: Creditor Business Code – you (Creditor) choose this. The default is ZZZ
  • 8 – 18: Creditor National Identifier – a consecutive number that will be assigned to you, with leading zeros

Portugal – SEPA Creditor Identifier:

• You (the Creditor) will have to request the SEPA Creditor Identifier from SIBS (the Portuguese Local Clearing House) – via email: sac@suporte@sibs.pt –> Please check this with your local bank
• The Portuguese Creditor Identifier is 13 characters long, where characters :
  • 1 – 2: ISO Country Code (PT – Portugal)
  • 3 – 4: Check Digit
  • 5 – 7: Creditor Business Code – you (Creditor) choose this. The default is ZZZ
  • 8 – 13: Creditor National Identifier – assigned by SIBS

Spain – SEPA Creditor Identifier:

• You (the Creditor) will have to determine your SEPA Creditor Identifier code  –> Please check this with your local bank
• The Spanish Creditor Identifier is 16 characters long, where characters :
  • 1 – 2: ISO Country Code (ES – Spain)
  • 3 – 4: Check Digit
  • 5 – 7: Creditor Business Code – you (Creditor) choose this. The default is ZZZ
  • 8 – 16: Creditor National Identifier – made up of:
    • 8: a letter indicating the legal entity
    • 9-15: 7 digits – indicating province / legal entity
    • 16:  check code

Netherlands – SEPA Creditor Identifier:

• Get it from your in-country bank
• The Netherlands Creditor Identifier is 19 characters long, where characters :
  • 1 – 2: ISO Country Code (NL – Netherlands)
  • 3 – 4: Check Digit
  • 5 – 7: Creditor Business Code – you (Creditor) choose this. The default is ZZZ
  • 8 – 15: Creditor Trade Register Number (KvK Number issed by the Dutch Chamber of Commerce). If the KvK Number is not available, an equivalent Betaalvereninging (DVB) number will be requested by your bank
  • 16-19: Rolling number assigned by the Creditor Bank

I’d be interested to hear of your experiences getting the Creditor Identifier. Let me know how you’ve got on with it….