SEPA - Services for payment service providers with bank sort code

• General information
• Procedural rules for the settlement of SEPA payments via the RPS SEPA-Clearer

General information

Through the SEPA-Clearer (SCL), which is part of the Bundesbank’s Retail Payment System (RPS), the Bundesbank offers a competitively neutral, high-performance and cost-effective payment procedure for the processing of domestic SEPA payments.

This webpage contains the links to the currently applicable procedural rules (presented separately for SEPA credit transfers and SEPA direct debits) as well as any draft versions relating to future releases for the processing of SEPA payments via the Deutsche Bundesbank’s RPS SEPA Clearer. The aforementioned documents also contain information concerning the settlement of SEPA payments as they occur between the SEPA-Clearer and other clearing infrastructures with which Bundesbank’s system is technically interoperable.

Requirements for participation

Participation in the Bundesbank’s RPS SEPA-Clearer is conditional on the participant signing the rules and regulations for SEPA Schemes payments and the successful completion of the integrative test exercises with the SEPA-Clearer.

Fees

The Deutsche Bundesbank charges from credit institutions a fee of €0.0025 per submitted SEPA payment message.

Until further notice, this charge is also applicable where payments in SEPA format from the SEPA-Clearer are processed via other clearing houses.

To facilitate the processing of SEPA payments to and from other SEPA countries which are not already processed via other clearing infrastructures by means of of bilateral cooperation, the Deutsche Bundesbank is connected to the relevant SEPA services of the Euro Banking Association’s pan-European automated clearing house “STEP2” of EBA CLEARING. As a direct participant in STEP2 services, the Bundesbank offers credit institutions the option of indirect participation in the EBA's CLEARING STEP2 system. As is currently the case in the EBA’s CLEARING STEP2 XCT service, the charges for participation and registration for indirect participation via EBA CLEARING, which are based on that association’s latest price information, are passed on to the respective submitter by the Bundesbank.

Procedural rules for the processing of SEPA payments via the RPS SEPA-Clearer effective as of 19 November 2011

Beginning from 1 November 2011, SEPA payments will be settled via the SEPA-Clearer in accordance with the following procedural rules.
The documentation is based on the following European Payments Council (EPC) rulebooks

• SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme Rulebook, Version 5.0
• SEPA Core Direct Debit Scheme Rulebook, Version 5.0
• SEPA Business to Business Direct Debit Scheme Rulebook, Version 3.0

as well as the respective Implementation Guidelines.

The procedural rules for the SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme (effective as of 19 November 2011)

The procedural rules for the SEPA Direct Debit Scheme (effective as of 19 November 2011)

Notes on the procedural rules for SEPA credit transfers and SEPA direct debits.
Specifications regarding communication with the SEPA-Clearer via SWIFTNet FileAct or EBICS can be found in the “Procedural rules on communication via SWIFTNet FileAct for the electronic Retail Payment System (RPS) and the RPS SEPA-Clearer (SCL)” and in the “Procedural rules on communication with credit institutions/payment institutions with a bank sort code via EBICS”.