The European Payments Council (EPC) has announced that consultations on the three existing SEPA scheme rulebooks will be open from 5 April to 4 July 2016. The public consultation will be held on the technical and business rules governing:

• SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT)
• SEPA Direct Debit Core (SDD Core)
• SDD Business-to-Business (SDD B2B)

Public consultations on the SEPA schemes aim to reflect the evolution of the needs of payment service providers and those of their customers, as well as technological changes.

In Q4 2015, the EPC opened a call for suggestion to amend the rulebooks and gathered nearly 40 suggested changes. All of which are included in the public consultations. Some of the suggested changes are:

• to make mandatory EPC Customer-to-Bank Implementation Guidelines
• to extend the direct debit collection return period from two to three interbank business days (regarding the SDD B2B scheme only)

The updated rulebooks and implementation guidelines will be published in November 2016 and will enter into force one year later.