The European Payments Council has called for interested parties and stakeholders to submit their suggestions for changes, as part of its review process to the existing SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) and SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) Rulebooks. The deadline for submitting suggestions is 31 December 2015.

The EPC is currently reviewing:

• SDD Core Rulebook version 9.0 and
• SDD Business to Business (B2B) Rulebook version 7.0.

These two rule books will be published in November 2016 and will then come into effect in November 2017. They will replace the SDD Core Rulebook version 8.1 and SDD B2B Rulebook version 6.1, which will take effect on 22 November this year. SCT Rulebook version 8.1 will also take effect in November this year and will remain in effect until November 2017.

The three SEPA rulebooks currently in effect until November 2015 are:

• SCT Rulebook version 7.2,
• SDD Core Rulebook version 7.2
• SDD B2B Rulebook version 5.2

The EPC stated that “all suggestions for changes to the rulebooks received are evaluated by the EPC and consolidated into a single change request document per rulebook. All proposed changes to the schemes are then released with the change request documents for a three-month public consultation. Proposed changes to the schemes that find broad acceptance in the entire stakeholder community and are technically and legally feasible are taken forward.”

According to the EPC, the development of the SCT and SDD schemes relies on close dialogue with key players in the payments market, as well as providers that help develop technical solutions.  

See the EPC website for more information on the review process of SEPA rulebooks.