ABOUT THE EUROPEAN PAYMENT COUNCIL (EPC)

The European Payments Council (EPC) is the coordination and decision-making body of the European banking industry in relation to payments. The purpose of the EPC is to support and promote the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). The EPC develops payment schemes and frameworks which help to realise the integrated euro payments market. In particular, the EPC defines common positions for the cooperative space of payment services.

EPC members represent banks, banking communities and payment institutions. More than 360 professionals are directly engaged in the EPC's work programme, representing organisations of all sizes and sectors of the European banking industry. The European Central Bank (ECB) acts as an observer in all EPC working and support groups and in the EPC Plenary (the Plenary is the decision-making body of the EPC, see chart below). The EPC is an international not-for-profit association which makes all of its deliverables, including the SEPA Scheme Rulebooks and adjacent documentation, available to download free of charge on the EPC Website. The EPC does not supply technology, goods or services.

In close dialogue with the stakeholder community, the EPC develops, among other things, the SEPA payment schemes as defined in the SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) and SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) Rulebooks. The rulebooks contain sets of rules and standards for the execution of SEPA payment transactions that have to be followed by adhering payment service providers (PSPs). These rulebooks can be regarded as instruction manuals which provide a common understanding on how to move funds from account A to account B within SEPA. The schemes are based on technical standards defined by standards bodies such as the International Organization for Standardization.

In February 2012, the European legislator, i.e. the European Parliament and the Council of the EU representing EU Member States, adopted the 'Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 establishing technical and business requirements for credit transfers and direct debits in euro and amending Regulation (EC) No 924/2009' (the SEPA Regulation). It defines 1 February 2014 as the deadline in the euro area for compliance with the core provisions of this Regulation. In non euro countries, the deadline will be 31 October 2016. Effectively, this means that as of these dates, existing national euro credit transfer and direct debit schemes will be replaced by SCT and SDD. In future, the SCT and SDD Schemes will have to comply with the technical requirements detailed in the SEPA Regulation. The SEPA Regulation empowers the European Commission to amend the technical requirements set out in the Annex to the Regulation through delegated acts.

EPC Members

• ABN Amro Bank (Netherlands)
• American Express
• Association of Banks in Bulgaria-ABB (Bulgaria)
• Association of Cyprus Banks- ACB (Cyprus)
• Association of Lithuanian Banks (Lithuania)
• Associazione Bancaria Italiana-ABB (Italy)
• Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria- BBVA (Spain)
• Banco Comercial Português (Portugal)
• Banco Popular (Spain)
• Banco Santander (Spain)
• Bank of Valleta (Malta)
• Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat- BCEE (Luxembourg)
• La Banque Postale (France)
• Bankia S.A. (Spain)
• Bayern LB (Germany)
• BNP Paribas (France)
• BNP Paribas Fortis Bank (Belgium)
• Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken- BVR (Germany)
• Bundesverband deustcher Banken-BdB (Germany)
• Groupe BPCE (France)
• Caixa Geral de Depositos-CGD (Portugal)
• Caja de Ahorros y Pensiones de Barcelona (La Caixa) (Spain)
• Citibank (United Kingdom)
• Commerzbank AG (Germany)
• Crédit Agricole Cedicam (France)
• Crédit Mutuel/Banque de l’Economie, du Commerce et de la Monétique-BECM (France)
• Croatian Banking Association-HUB (Croatia)
• Czech Banking Association-BCA (Czech Republic)
• Danish Bankers Association- Finanzradet (Denmark)
• Danske Bank (Denmark)
• Deutsche Bank (Germany)
• Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank- DZ Bank (Germany)
• Deutscher Sparkassen-und Giroverband-DSGV (Germany)
• DNB Bank ASA (Norway)
• Erste Bank der Oesterreichischen Sparkassen (Austria)
• Euro Banking Association-EBA (France)
• European Association of Cooperative Banks-EACB (Belgium)
• European Banking Federation-EBF (Belgium)
• European Savings Banks Group-ESBG (Belgium)
• Fédération Bancaire Française (FBF) (France)
• Federation of Finnish Financial Services (Finland)
• Hellenic Bank Association (Greece)
• HSBC Bank (United Kingdom)
• Hungarian SEPA Association (Hungary)
• Icelandic Financial Services Association-SFF (Finland)
• ING Bank (Netherlands)
• Intesa Sanpaolo (Italy)
• Irish Payment Services Organisation-IPSO (Irelande)
• Istituto Centrale delle Banche Popolari Italiane-ICBPI (Italy)
• KBC Bank (Belgium)
• Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (Germany)
• Liechtenstein Bankers Association (Liechtenstein)
• Nederlandse Vereniging van Banken-NVB (Netherlands)
• Nordea Bank Finland (Finland)
• OTP Bank (Hungary)
• Payments Council Limited (United Kingdom)
• Pohjola Bank plc (Finland)
• Polish Bank Association (Poland)
• Powszechna Kasa Osczednosci Bank Polski-PKO (Poland)
• Rabobank Nederland (Netherlands)
• Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich-RZB (Austria)
• Romanian Banking Association (Romania)
• Slovak Association of Banks- SBA (Slovakia)
• Société Générale (France)
• Swedbank (Sweden)
• Swedish Bankers Association (Sweden)
• The Bank Association of Slovenia (Slovenia)
• The Royal Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom)
• UBIbanca (Italy)
• UBS (Switzerland)
• Unicredit S.p.A. (Italy)