SEPA and SEPA Instant payments for EU merchants.
BazPay is a single API for euro payments on the SEPA schemes. Send and receive SEPA credit transfers, run SEPA Instant when the beneficiary bank is reachable, and pull recurring collections under a signed SEPA mandate — all from the same REST endpoint that runs your cards.
Built for EU e-commerce, subscription software and professional-services businesses that want bank-rail euro settlement without stitching to a separate provider.
Why merchants add SEPA alongside cards
Bank rails and card rails have different economics. Merchants that live in euros pay-in and pay-out on SEPA for the ticket sizes where the fee model matters most.
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Euro settlement without card fees
SEPA credit transfer moves euros bank-to-bank without card scheme interchange. Bank pulls and payouts cost a flat per-transaction fee, not a percentage.
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SEPA Instant, day and night
SEPA Instant payments clear in seconds, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. The response returns the accepted status inside the same request cycle.
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One API for pay-in and pay-out
Merchant collections, refunds, direct debits and merchant payouts all sit behind the same REST endpoint and the same signed-webhook catalogue as your card traffic.
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IBAN-native record keeping
Every payment carries the counter-party IBAN, the end-to-end reference and the reason code. Finance teams reconcile from primary evidence, not from a synthetic ID.
The SEPA schemes on one contract
Four scheme families run through one connection: SEPA Credit Transfer, SEPA Instant, SEPA Direct Debit and the IBAN/reporting rails that reconcile them.
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SCT
SEPA credit transfer (SCT)
The classic euro payment. One-off transfers between two IBANs in the SEPA zone, settled at the next available cycle. Use it for large-ticket pay-ins and for scheduled merchant payouts where instant is not required.
- Pay-in
- Payout
- Refund
- Bulk file
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SCT Inst
SEPA Instant payments
Real-time euro payments. Reachable to any bank that participates in SCT Inst. Confirmation lands in seconds, so orders release without a wait.
- Real-time
- 24/7/365
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SDD
SEPA Direct Debit (Core)
Pull euros from a customer IBAN under a signed SEPA mandate. Used for subscription billing, membership renewals and consented recurring invoices in the SEPA region.
- Recurring
- One-off
- Mandate lifecycle
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Rails
IBAN and reporting rails
IBAN validation on capture, camt.053 daily statements and camt.054 debit/credit notifications feed your reconciliation stack.
- IBAN
- camt.053
- camt.054
Pay-in initiation via user's bank on open banking. Merchant fund distribution on payouts. Recurring pulls on recurring billing.
The life of one SEPA payment
Six stages sit between the API call and the reconciled statement entry. Each stage is visible in the dashboard and each stage change fires a signed webhook.
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Create
Post a charge or payout with the counter-party IBAN, amount and end-to-end reference. Idempotency keys keep retries safe.
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Validate
IBAN structure and country code are validated before the message enters the scheme. Bad input never leaves the platform.
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Route
SEPA Instant is attempted first when both parties are reachable on SCT Inst. Otherwise the request falls back to standard SCT.
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Clear
The message clears through the participating bank in seconds (Instant) or at the next SCT cycle. Reason codes are surfaced verbatim.
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Confirm
The response returns an accepted, pending or rejected status. A signed webhook fires on every state change.
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Reconcile
camt.053 statements land daily. camt.054 debit and credit notifications stream events as they clear against your account.
SEPA vs card rails, at a glance
The two rails coexist. This table is the working comparison finance and product teams use when they decide which rail to route which payment down.
| Dimension | SEPA (SCT / SCT Inst / SDD) | Card rails |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | EUR | Any (multi-currency) |
| Typical fee model | Flat per-transaction | Percentage of ticket |
| Chargebacks | None on SCT/SCT Inst; SDD refund window applies | Card scheme dispute window |
| Auth model | Bank-side, SCA on initiation | 3-D Secure 2 via issuer |
| Speed to clear | Seconds (Instant) / next cycle (SCT) | Seconds (auth); days (settle) |
| Identifier | IBAN | PAN + expiry + CVC |
Fee schedules and settlement details on the pricing page.
Features engineered into the SEPA rail
Every capability below ships on the standard integration. Turn features on with a request flag or a dashboard toggle — no enterprise-tier gate on the primitives.
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SEPA credit transfer API
Create SCT payments with a POST. Amount, counter-party IBAN, end-to-end reference and metadata on the request.
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SEPA Instant with fallback
Instant attempted first; automatic fallback to standard SCT when the beneficiary bank is not reachable on SCT Inst.
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SDD mandate lifecycle
Create, sign, store, revoke. Sequence flag (FRST, RCUR, FNAL, OOFF) written to every direct-debit message.
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IBAN validator
Structure, country and check-digit validation on capture. Reject bad input at the API edge, not at the bank.
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Signed webhooks
HMAC-signed, replay-protected events for every state change on SCT, SCT Inst and SDD messages.
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camt.053 and camt.054
Daily statement and debit/credit notification feeds attach to your merchant account for external reconciliation.
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Bulk file support
pain.001 payment initiation and pain.008 direct debit files accepted for finance teams that batch outside the API.
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Idempotent requests
Retry any create request with the same idempotency key — a network blip never becomes a duplicate SEPA payment.
One REST call for a SEPA credit transfer
The payment object is the unit of work. Post a SEPA credit transfer with the counter-party IBAN, amount and end-to-end reference. Idempotency keeps retries safe. Signed webhooks confirm the accepted, pending or rejected state.
POST /v1/payments
Idempotency-Key: 8f1c-2b3a-9e4d
{
"type": "sepa_credit_transfer",
"instant": true,
"amount": 149000,
"currency": "EUR",
"counterparty": {
"name": "ACME EU LTD",
"iban": "DE89 3704 0044 0532 0130 00"
},
"end_to_end_id": "INV-2026-08-042",
"remittance": "Invoice INV-2026-08-042"
}
When instant is true the platform attempts SEPA Instant first and falls
back to standard SCT if the beneficiary bank is not reachable on SCT Inst. Read the
payment object in the API reference.
Where SEPA earns its keep
The default configuration already reflects these four merchant profiles. Turn on the ones you need from the dashboard and tune each scheme's behaviour against your own volumes.
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High-ticket e-commerce pay-in
Order-total transfers over your card ceiling. Bank pull avoids scheme fees, keeps the euro amount exact and works across the SEPA region.
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Subscription software
Recurring pulls under a stored SEPA mandate. Cheaper per charge than cards for annual plans, with retry logic on soft returns.
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Professional services
Invoiced retainers and staged project billing where the payer prefers bank transfer over card. Instant confirmation on SCT Inst-reachable banks.
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Merchant payouts
Split funds to suppliers, contractors or your own treasury accounts. SEPA Instant where the beneficiary bank supports it, standard SCT otherwise.
Out of scope for BazPay SEPA: adult, gambling, CBD, nutraceutical, forex, CFD, crypto-exchange, debt-collection and MLM merchants.
Where the SEPA zone reaches
SEPA is a scheme geography, not a currency geography. Non-euro countries participate when their banks join the SCT, SCT Inst or SDD rulebooks published by the European Payments Council.
| Region | Participation |
|---|---|
| EU-27 | All euro-area and non-euro EU member states participate in SCT, SCT Inst and SDD schemes. |
| EEA non-EU | Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein participate in the SEPA schemes alongside EU members. |
| Selected non-EEA | United Kingdom, Switzerland, Monaco, San Marino, Andorra and the Vatican participate as SEPA countries under the EPC's geographical scope. |
The authoritative list of SEPA zone countries is maintained by the European Payments Council. Confirm reachability for a specific corridor with sales during boarding.
Security and compliance signals
SEPA payments run under the European Payments Council rulebooks and PSD2 strong customer authentication. Merchant onboarding is 5AMLD/6AMLD compliant, and counter-party screening runs against the EU consolidated sanctions list before a message leaves the platform.
- PSD2 SCA
- Strong customer authentication on payment initiation, delegated to the payer's bank
- GDPR
- EU data residency; DPA available on request
- SEPA scheme rulebooks
- SCT, SCT Inst and SDD Core rulebooks published by the European Payments Council
- Sanctions screening
- EU consolidated list checks on counter-party name and IBAN before the message leaves the platform
- AML
- 5AMLD / 6AMLD compliant merchant onboarding and ongoing monitoring
Questions merchants ask first
What is SEPA, and which schemes does BazPay support?
SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) is the harmonised set of euro payment schemes coordinated by the European Payments Council. BazPay supports SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT), SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) and SEPA Direct Debit Core (SDD Core) for pay-ins, payouts, refunds and recurring collections denominated in euros.
Which countries are inside the SEPA zone?
The SEPA zone covers all 27 EU member states, the EEA countries Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, and selected non-EEA participants including the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Monaco, San Marino, Andorra and the Vatican City. Coverage of specific SEPA zone countries can change; the European Payments Council maintains the authoritative list.
How fast are SEPA Instant payments?
Under the SCT Inst rulebook the beneficiary account is credited within ten seconds of the message being accepted, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Reachability depends on the beneficiary bank — not every SEPA bank has joined SCT Inst yet, so the platform falls back to standard SCT when the payer or payee bank does not participate.
What is a SEPA mandate, and how does BazPay handle it?
A SEPA mandate is the payer's signed authorisation for a specific creditor to pull funds from their SEPA bank account under the SDD scheme. BazPay stores the mandate reference, the creditor identifier, the sequence flag (FRST for the first collection, RCUR for subsequent ones, FNAL for the last, OOFF for one-off) and the signature date, and applies them to every direct-debit message.
Do I need a separate SEPA bank account to receive settlement?
You need a euro-denominated SEPA account in your merchant's name to receive settlement. Any IBAN inside the SEPA zone that supports SCT is acceptable. BazPay does not require a specific bank — the merchant chooses. Named settlement currencies for approved corridors are documented on the pricing page.
Are there chargebacks on SEPA credit transfer?
SEPA Credit Transfer and SEPA Instant Credit Transfer are push payments and do not have card-style chargebacks. SEPA Direct Debit gives the payer an eight-week no-questions refund right on authorised collections, and a thirteen-month right to dispute an unauthorised one. BazPay surfaces every refund and reject reason code verbatim via signed webhook.
How do I validate an IBAN before I send a SEPA payment?
The API validates IBAN structure, country and check digits on capture. Bad input is rejected at the API edge before any message enters the scheme. Bank-account existence and reachability are confirmed by the receiving bank on submission and reported back in the response and webhook.
Which merchant types can use BazPay for SEPA payments?
Low-risk EU merchants: e-commerce sellers, subscription software firms, professional-services businesses and digital publishers. BazPay does not board adult, gambling, CBD, nutraceutical, forex, CFD, crypto-exchange, debt-collection or MLM merchants, and does not operate as a marketplace of third-party PSPs.
Add SEPA to your existing integration
Open a sandbox account and post your first SEPA credit transfer in the same hour. Prefer a walkthrough of mandate handling, SCT Inst reachability or camt.053 reconciliation? A payments specialist can map the corridor with you — see also anti-fraud controls and merchant acquiring.