European Payments Council
The European Payments Council is an industry association of payment service providers and their associations that manages European payment schemes. European Payments Council rulebooks define how participating providers handle SEPA credit transfers, instant transfers and direct debits, including payments between institutions in different countries.
A cross-border payment needs shared rules so that the sender's and recipient's providers can interpret instructions and apply compatible procedures. The European Payments Council develops and updates those rules with its members and other stakeholders. Banks and payment firms use the schemes when designing and operating services that move euros across the Single Euro Payments Area.
EPC members and governance
42 European banks and banking associations founded the EPC in spring 2002 to put SEPA into practice. The members of the EPC today are payment service providers and their associations from across SEPA. The ECB describes the SEPA schemes as developed and administered by the EPC, while EU law sets the frame: the Payment Services Directive, the SEPA regulation and the instant payments regulation.
A bank joins a scheme by signing its adherence agreement. The Bundesbank counts more than 4,500 payment service providers that have done so for the SEPA credit transfer.
The schemes and rulebooks
The EPC manages four payment schemes inside SEPA: the SEPA credit transfer, the SEPA instant credit transfer, the SDD Core direct debit for consumers and the SDD B2B direct debit for businesses. The One-Leg Out Instant Credit Transfer scheme covers the euro leg of instant payments that enter or leave SEPA. Next to these come schemes that move no money themselves: SEPA request-to-pay, SEPA payment account access and the verification of payee scheme for the name check before a transfer.
The EPC also publishes guidelines, the best known being the EPC QR code that fills a transfer form from an invoice. Rulebook changes run through public consultations and take effect in a yearly release cycle, usually in November.
Upcoming payments events
Is the European Payments Council an EU body?
The EPC is a private association of payment service providers. EU law, the European Commission and the ECB set requirements, and the EPC turns them into scheme rules that banks sign up to.
Which systems process EPC schemes?
Any clearing and settlement mechanism that follows the rulebooks can process EPC schemes, including STEP2 and RT1 of EBA Clearing, TIPS of the Eurosystem and national systems such as the mass payment system of the Bundesbank; the EPC does not run any of them.
Does the EPC set the price of a SEPA transfer?
Each bank sets its own prices, while EU law requires that a cross-border euro transfer costs the same as a domestic one, and that an instant transfer costs no more than a standard transfer.
European Payments Council and Finance Loop
Finance Loop brings together the people at banks and payment firms who implement each new EPC rulebook release, from the name check to request-to-pay. Finance Loop is a partner of the Digital Euro Association, host of the Digital Euro Conference in Frankfurt, where the future of euro payment schemes is on the agenda.
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.