SEPA

The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is an initiative of the European banking sector in response to the need to create a single market for making payments in euros, where citizens and businesses can make their payments easily, securely, and efficiently, just as they do today within their countries, using a single account and a single set of homogenous payment instruments.

This initiative allows individuals, businesses, and other economic agents to make their payments in euros, both national and international, under the same basic conditions and with the same rights and obligations, regardless of where they are located.

The SEPA area is made up of the 27 member countries of the European Union, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, and Switzerland.

The SEPA project enables users of bank transfers, direct debits, and cards from these 32 countries to have a single set of standards and norms. As a result, all payments—national or cross-border between the countries of the SEPA area—have been standardized in terms of simplicity, security, and efficiency. SEPA is a reality that allows these instruments to be used for payment operations in Spain and with the rest of the SEPA area.

To this end, Regulation (EU) 260/2012 has established the technical and business requirements for euro transfers and direct debits that take place between the countries of the Union. One of the main consequences of this regulation is the obligation to use common instruments throughout the EU. Since February 1, 2014, all transfers and direct debits conducted in Spain and in the rest of the euro area will be solely SEPA. And from October 31, 2016, this will apply to the other member countries of the SEPA area.

Through the European Payments Council (EPC), these SEPA instruments have been defined for transfers and direct debits, along with a set of norms and standards in ISO 20022 format that must be respected by the parties involved.

To this end, the SEPA Guidelines of the series of banking standards and procedures are defined, which allow the issuance of SEPA transfers or direct debits, in accordance with the applicable European regulations.