OCT Inst
OCT Inst is the European Payments Council's scheme for instant international credit transfers with one side in the SEPA area and the other outside it. The scheme sets common rules for the euro part of the payment. This part connects a payment service provider in SEPA with the provider handling the exchange into another currency.
Payment providers use the scheme to coordinate the euro transfer with the international payment route. The part outside SEPA still follows the rules of the receiving or sending payment system. Participation is voluntary, so the availability of an OCT Inst transfer depends on the providers and currency connections involved.
How OCT Inst differs from SCT Inst
SCT Inst is the instant credit transfer in euro between two accounts in the SEPA area, the scheme behind instant payments in Europe. OCT Inst takes the same idea to payments that start or end outside that area, for example a euro payment from Frankfurt that arrives as rupees in Mumbai, or dollars that arrive in Germany as euros. Joining the scheme is voluntary for payment service providers, as Payneteasy notes in its review of the rulebook.
The rulebooks so far
The EPC published the first OCT Inst rulebook on 28 March 2023 and version 1.1 on 30 June 2023; both took effect on 28 November 2023. A revised 2025 rulebook, published in November 2024, entered into force on 5 October 2025, the date the Instant Payments Regulation set for related EPC schemes. Version 1.1 of the 2025 rulebook moves the date after which unstructured addresses are no longer allowed to 15 November 2026. The rulebooks and implementation guidelines are in the EPC document library.
OCT Inst in TIPS
The European Central Bank built the cross-currency settlement service of TIPS on OCT Inst. In its decision of October 2024 it wrote that this allows TIPS to exchange payments with fast payment systems outside the euro area without a direct technical link between the systems. The service went live for the Swedish krona and the Danish krone in June 2026, and the ECB is preparing links with India's UPI and with Nexus, as the page on cross-border instant payments describes.
Upcoming payments events
What does "one-leg out" mean?
A payment with one leg inside SEPA and one leg outside it. The leg inside SEPA runs in euro under the EPC rules; the leg outside runs in the other currency under the rules of the system there, and a provider in the middle connects the two.
Is OCT Inst mandatory?
No. Payment service providers decide whether to adhere to the scheme. The Instant Payments Regulation obliges euro area providers to offer instant transfers in euro, which is SCT Inst; it does not require OCT Inst.
Who publishes the OCT Inst rulebook?
The European Payments Council, the body that also manages the SEPA credit transfer, SEPA instant credit transfer and SEPA direct debit schemes. The European Payments Council publishes the rulebook together with implementation guidelines and guidance on reason codes.
OCT Inst and Finance Loop
Finance Loop is the meeting place in Germany for the payment teams that implement EPC schemes at banks and payment institutions. Finance Loop runs its own Frankfurt and Berlin formats on instant transfers, and its members meet the wider payments industry at Banking Exchange in Frankfurt and Payment Exchange in Berlin.
Finance Loop is a professional network supporting the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.