What is SEPA

What is SEPA?

SEPA will standardise euro electronic payments across Europe. In total, there are 33 countries in the SEPA area. These are the existing 28 EU member states of the European Union, together with Iceland, Lichtenstein, Monaco, Norway and Switzerland.
The 28 countries of the European Union are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
SEPA comes into full effect on 1 February 2014, changing the way euro electronic payments are processed across Europe. It will mean that you can make and receive payments seamlessly, collect a direct debit on any euro account or make a credit transfer to any euro account within SEPA.

What are the main changes that SEPA brings?

• From 1 February 2014, existing national payment schemes will be closed down, following which euro electronic payments will be processed through new SEPA schemes.
• By that stage, all national direct debits and credit transfers must be SEPA-compliant. This will include everything from staff payroll to paying creditors or receiving a euro electronic payment from customers within SEPA.
• National sort codes and account numbers will be replaced by an International Bank Account Number (IBAN) and a Business Identifier Code (BIC).

Are you obliged to conform to SEPA standards?

Yes, EU regulation 260/2012 means that all businesses must conform to the new SEPA standards before the end-date of 1 February 2014.

Where can you find IBAN and BIC?

IBAN and BIC details are generally included on bank statements.
If you cannot locate these, IPSO provide an online converter to convert your bank sort code and account number into BIC and IBAN format.

IPSO Converter

Simply input your original bank sort code and account number.
 

Thesaurus Payroll Manager Auto Converter

SEPA functionality within Thesaurus Payroll Manager has been designed to make the conversion to SEPA seamless for users.

IMPORTANT NOTE
To do this Thesaurus Payroll Manager performs online conversions of bank sort codes and account numbers to SEPA compliant BIC and IBANs. All users who require SEPA functionality within Thesaurus Payroll Manager must have an open internet connection.
Without an open internet connection SEPA functionality will not operate from within the payroll software.