The SEPA regulation (EU) 260/2012

The regulation applies to credit transfers and direct debits in euro where the payment service providers sit in the EU. Card payments and money remittance stay outside, according to the consolidated text on EUR-Lex. A bank that can receive a national credit transfer must also be reachable for transfers from any other member state (Article 3), and the same holds for direct debits offered to consumers.

Article 5 sets the common technical rules: the IBAN as the account identifier and the ISO 20022 XML standard for the messages between providers and in files that business customers send in bulk. Article 6 set the end dates for the old national formats, February 1, 2014 for credit transfers in the euro area and February 1, 2017 for some national direct debit products. Article 8 bans multilateral interchange fees on direct debits, with a narrow exception for fees on rejected or returned payments.

Article 9 bars a payer from demanding that the payee's account sit in a particular member state, and the payee from demanding the same of the payer's account, as long as the account is reachable under Article 3. A utility, an employer, a tax office or an online shop that accepts SEPA payments must therefore accept an IBAN from another SEPA country in the euro area.

The Court of Justice of the EU ruled on the point in case C-28/18, brought by the Austrian consumer association VKI against Deutsche Bahn. Deutsche Bahn may not limit SEPA direct debit to customers resident in Germany, and other payment methods on offer do not change that, as Europakonsument reports on the judgment. The regulation leaves enforcement to an authority each member state names under Article 10, with penalties under Article 11.

Regulation (EU) 2024/886 added Articles 5a to 5d. A provider that offers SEPA credit transfers must offer instant credit transfers at any hour, with the funds on the payee's account within ten seconds. In the euro area the deadlines were January 9, 2025 for receiving and October 9, 2025 for sending. An instant transfer may not cost more than a standard one, the payer's provider checks the payee's name before the order goes out, and providers screen their customers against EU sanctions lists at least once a day.

Each of these duties has its own page: instant payments in Europe for the ten-second rule and the deadlines, verification of payee for the name check, and SEPA direct debit for the mandate scheme the European Payments Council runs on top of the regulation.

Yes. Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 applies in its consolidated version, amended by Regulation (EU) No 248/2014 and by the instant payments regulation (EU) 2024/886, which added the rules on instant credit transfers and the payee name check.

Refusing a euro payment, or a direct debit mandate, because the IBAN belongs to a bank in another SEPA country. Article 9 of the SEPA regulation bans it for accounts that are reachable for SEPA payments, and the Court of Justice confirmed in the Deutsche Bahn case that a residence requirement for direct debit breaches the rule.

No. It covers euro credit transfers and direct debits. Card payments follow their own rules, among them the EU cap on interchange fees and the card scheme rules described on card payments in Germany.