SEPA stands for Single Euro Payments Area. It consists of 34 countries where SEPA payments instruments like SEPA Credit Transfer and SEPA Direct Debits are used for funds transfer.
The IBAN number or simply IBAN (International Bank Account Number) serves as the unique identifier for the bank account in SEPA payments. Debtor and Creditor accounts must be provided therein in IBAN formats. But contrary to what many believe, IBANs are not used everywhere in the world as we will see below. This article begins with […]
Simply put, SEPA payments are pan-European payments instruments in Euro, created as results of the SEPA project whose aim is to harmonize standards and practices for electronic and cash payments across the SEPA area. The SEPA area consists of 34 countries out of which some do not use Euro as local currency. If you are […]
The SWIFT BIC code is a standardized international identifier (ISO 9362) used in financial messages exchanges. Understanding what the BIC code is fundamental because it is used to identify entities and to route payments messages over SWIFTNet, the SWIFT secure IP Network. What does BIC stand for? and what is the BIC? Does BIC stand for […]
Before considering the differences between SEPA Direct Debit Core and SEPA Direct Debit B2B Schemes, it is worth reminding ourselves what a scheme is. The European Payments Council (EPC) defines a scheme as following: “A payment scheme is a set of rules which Payment Services Providers (PSPs) have agreed upon to execute transactions through a specific […]
There exists two direct debit models: the Creditor-driven Flow and the Debtor-driven Mandate Flow. The SDD Schemes are based on the first model, the CMF. This article will answer the following questions: What are the direct debit models? What are their main differences? A direct debit model essentially tells us how a mandate is issued […]
If you ever want to understand how a payment instrument works and specifically the SEPA Direct Debit, the place to start is to draw the Four Corner Model and to study it. In introductory articles, we analyzed the open loop model, which remains the most widespread payments system model in the world. The Four Corner […]