SEPAsäädökset

SEPAsäädökset refer to the set of legal provisions that create and govern the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) in Europe. The aim is to harmonize euro payments across participating countries so that a payment sent from one country can reach a beneficiary in another as easily as a domestic payment, using common instruments, formats, and rules. The term is commonly used in Finland to describe the EU-led regulatory framework and national adaptations that enable cross-border euro payments under SEPA.

The core SEPA instruments are the SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT), which covers euro payments between bank accounts, and the SEPA Direct Debit (SDD), which enables euro debit transactions with standardized authorisation and processing. A newer addition is the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst), which is intended for near-instant transfers, subject to participating banks’ capabilities. In SEPA transactions, accounts are identified by IBAN, and BIC is increasingly optional, with formats standardized under ISO 20022 message sets (for example, pain.001 for credit transfers and pain.008 for direct debits).

The regulatory framework combines EU regulations and technical standards developed or endorsed by the European Payments Council (EPC). These standards define the message formats, processing timelines, settlement arrangements, and governance of the SEPA schemes. National authorities and financial institutions implement the rules within their jurisdictions, and supervision typically involves national banking regulators in coordination with EU-level bodies such as the European Central Bank and the European Commission.

In Finland, SEPAsäädökset are implemented through national payment services legislation aligned with EU SEPA rules. Finnish banks and payment service providers must support SCT and SDD, enabling cross-border euro payments with the same basic terms as domestic payments. The regime has generally reduced fragmentation and costs for cross-border euro payments, while remaining subject to the evolving standards and security requirements of SEPA.