SEPALastschriften

SEPA Lastschriften, also known as SEPA Direct Debit (SDD), is a payment instrument used within the Single Euro Payments Area to collect euro-denominated payments by direct debit. It standardizes cross-border and domestic recurring or one-off payments across participating countries, using IBAN for bank accounts and, optionally, BIC. The scheme is governed by rules from the European Payments Council (EPC). There are two main variants: SEPA Core Direct Debit and SEPA B2B Direct Debit. Core is available to consumers and companies, while B2B is intended for business-to-business use and has different handling and refund rules.

Participants in SEPA Direct Debit include the payer (debtor), the payee (creditor), and the respective banks, which execute the debit and settlement. Before a collection, the creditor must obtain a mandate from the debtor authorizing the debit. Each mandate has a unique reference and the creditor is identified by a Creditor Identifier. The debtor may receive a pre-notification of the amount and date prior to the first collection, and the mandate remains valid until cancelled.

The typical process involves the debtor signing or agreeing to the mandate, the creditor issuing a pre-notification, the creditor initiating the direct debit, and the debtor’s bank processing and settling the payment. DEBIT cycles can be domestic or cross-border within SEPA.

Refund rights differ between variants. In SEPA Core Direct Debit, the debtor can request a refund from their bank within eight weeks of the debit date for unauthorized or incorrectly executed collections. In SEPA B2B Direct Debit, refund rights are more limited and depend on the contract terms.

SEPA Direct Debit offers a standardized, cross-border method for recurring payments, widely used for utilities, subscriptions, and supplier payments within the euro area.