SEPA services for account holders without bank sort code

General information

As part of its retail payments settlement system, the Deutsche Bundesbank offers account holders without bank sort code the opportunity to settle national and cross-border SEPA credit transfers and since 1 November 2009 it has offered a facility to settle national and cross-border SEPA direct debits (SEPA basic direct debits and SEPA corporate direct debits). SEPA payments are settled via the SEPA segment of the Customer Access Mechanism (CAM SEPA).

This webpage contains links to the procedural rules for the settlement of SEPA payments that have been submitted electronically by account holders without bank sort code.

Submission and delivery of payments

SEPA payments can be submitted and delivered electronically via the following communication procedures.

• EBICS (Electronic Banking Internet Communication Standard)
• Online-Banking via FinTS

Although the Bundesbank promotes the paperless settlement of payments for reasons of efficiency, it is also possible to submit or receive paper-based SEPA credit transfers. The paper-based submission of SEPA direct debits is not on offer, however.

The electronic submission of SEPA payments is carried out in XML format via so-called pain messages. SEPA credit transfers and SEPA basic direct debits are delivered to EBICS participants in DTAUS0 format (DTI file). SEPA corporate direct debits are delivered in paper form.

The requirement for the submission of a direct debit is a SEPA direct debit mandate signed by the debtor. The German banking industry has developed specimen mandates which are to be used by parties submitting direct debits.

Processing and settlement of payments

SEPA credit transfers are settled as retail payments in a morning and evening execution window. SEPA credit transfers submitted in the morning window are booked on the same day. Submissions during the evening execution window are booked on the next business day.

Procedural rules

Owing to a new delineation of the Bundesbank’s customer structure for cashless payments, from 1 November 2010 the term “non-bank” will be replaced by “account holder without a bank sort code”. This change is part of the revised version of the “Procedural rules for the settlement of SEPA credit transfers and SEPA direct debits for non-banks.” As a great number of changes have been made in the revised version, the new and previous terms separated by an oblique will not be given.