Find out how payment service providers (PSPs) carrying out credit transfers or direct debits in euro, may be subject to specific requirements under the SEPA Regulation.
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Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA)
The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) aims to make sure that European consumers, businesses and public authorities can make and receive payments in euro under the same basic conditions, rights and obligations.
The SEPA Regulation (Regulation (EU) 260/2012) (as onshored by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and amended by the Credit Transfers and Direct Debits in Euro (Amendment)(EU Exit) Regulations 2018), sets out technical standards, conduct and information requirements for credit transfers and direct debits in euros.
The SEPA Regulation applies to:
- PSPs that are reachable (see below) for euro payments
- credit transfers and direct debits denominated in euros – as long as all the PSPs involved in the transaction are based in the EEA
Payments to which the SEPA Regulation doesn’t apply:
- transactions not denominated in euro – including all sterling-denominated transactions
- card payments
- internal transfers within PSPs
- most payments transmitted over large-value payment systems (eg, TARGET, or EURO1)
- money remittance and e-money transfers where neither of the accounts involved is a payment identifiable by International Bank Account Number (IBAN)
- own-account payments by, and payments between, payment service providers
Our role and oversight of overseas branches
We are the competent authority overseeing SEPA compliance in the UK, and we have been given powers for this under the Payments in Euro (Credit Transfers and Direct Debits) Regulations 2012.
If you think you will have difficulty complying with your obligations, you should tell your supervisor as soon as possible.
If you have branches in other SEPA countries, the competent authorities designated by these countries will oversee branches’ compliance with these requirements.
What you must do
Establishing Reachability
You must participate in one of the EU-wide SEPA schemes to be reachable for euro payments. More information about the schemes is available from:
- the European Payments Council (EPC), an international non-profit association of payments services providers
- UK Finance, the trade association for the UK payments industry
You can find out more about the process and rules of adherence to the SEPA schemes from UK Finance. If you have questions about the adherence process, email [email protected]
The EPC maintains registers of all participants in SEPA payment schemes.
Reporting problems
We operate a dedicated SEPA compliance reports email address ([email protected]).
Our reports mailbox is open to everyone, including consumers, firms and representative bodies based in the UK or overseas.
If you believe that a business we regulate is not fulfilling its obligations under the SEPA regulation, you should report this, along with details of the relevant incident(s).
The Financial Ombudsman Service is the UK’s designated out-of-court redress body for SEPA-related complaints, and for payments-related complaints in general.
If you are dealing with PSPs (including branches of UK payment service providers) based in another SEPA country, report your concerns to the competent authority in that country and refer any complaints to the appropriate body there.
Transition to IBAN-only
UK Finance and Swift developed a SEPA IBAN-only Directory to help firms and consumers in SEPA countries get the correct BIC for a UK payee from their GB IBAN. The Directory can be accessed free of charge.
Page updates
25/04/2019: Link changed Updated EPC registers of all participants in SEPA payment schemes link