The EPC Releasing 2012 Rulebooks
- As usual, one year beforehand, the EPC publishes the new versions of its three SEPA Rulebooks adopted last September after consultation. On 17 November 2012, versions 6.0 of the SEPA Credit Transfer Rulebook and the SEPA Core Direct Debit Rulebook as well as the version 4.0 of the SEPA B2B Direct Debit Rulebook will come into effect.
- The SCT will hardly evolve (except for the addition of detailed information on Recalls in case of fraud). The SDD Core Rulebook, for its part, will include a new option: a collection time shortened to one inter-bank business day to respond to the needs of real-time-based sectors, such as insurances or equity transactions. In both SDD Rulebooks, the Reversal (a creditor reimbursing his debtor) is extended to five business days after the amount is debited.
- Note that versions released in 2010 are coming into effect on 19 November 2011 (SCT and SDD Core versions 5.1, SDD B2B version 3.1). The main difference in the current two SDD documents consists in the addition of the "Advance Mandate Information" (AMI) option. If proposed by the creditor bank, this option enables the creditor to send mandate information beforehand, as soon as received, to the debtor’s bank. The latter can store mandate information and proceed with any relevant verifications required in existing debtor mandate flow countries, as in France, to protect the debtor.
- The SEPA Rulebooks are now particularly stable as the changes requested each year by the different players and retained by the EPC are now only limited. Nevertheless, the EPC will have to make them evolve with the publication of the SEPA Migration End Date Regulation in the beginning of 2012, the adoption on which should take place in Parliament this December: mostly, added consumer protection rules and the obligation for professional customers to send batch messages using ISO 20022 XML format.