EPC: Approved CAs for SDD e-Mandate Services
- The EPC set up its certification scheme for SDD e-mandates. The (optional) e-mandate service actually links several players who do not know each other, but still have to establish irrefutable exchanges (debtor, creditor and their respective banks). Each party’s bank must then choose a Certification Authority, in charge of asserting its end customer’s online identity.
- On 4 February, the EPC published contract templates and specifications to be applied to the CAs in charge of certifying the service providers for exchanges of dematerialised SDD e-mandates, based on its “e-Mandate e-Operating Model”. These services include routing (sending of the validation request by the creditor's bank) and validation of the e-mandate (by the debtor's bank).
- Most of all, the EPC set up a governing instance dedicated to CAs, the Certification Authority Supervisory Board (CASB). SEPA now disposes of a trust model making it possible to deploy e-mandate validation in an interoperable way.
- EPC’s trust scheme is the sine qua non condition for a proper functioning of e-mandate’s interbank validation by the debtor. It should be reminded that this functionality is initiated by the creditor if both banks involved in the process do propose it (creditor’s and debtor’s banks). It consists in having the e-mandate validated by the debtor through the interbank circuit; just afterwards this e-mandate has been signed by the debtor for his creditor. The latter sends it to his bank; it is then routed to the debtor's bank. Using his online banking portal, the debtor recognises and confirms the e-mandate. In this way, the legal possibility, for the debtor, to deny any direct debit collection during a thirteen-month period for inexistent consent is then repealed.
- This complex scheme avoids using a single interbank network (as is often the case with cards). A simpler solution could be thought of but SEPA compels a very high level of competition between processing providers (so-called ‘unbundling’ obligation). The EPC scheme prevents the creation of an essential infrastructure (a “bundle”), likely to abuse of its leading position.