The SEPA direct payments are based on a standing order, whereby the debtor (payer) authorises the creditor (beneficiary) to receive payments in an account held by it.
With SEPA, the presentation of direct payments to any European financial institution belonging to the single payment area in Euros may be performed with the same speed, costs and security as national payments.
You can use this service to manage direct payments, whether recurring or not, with any financial institution in the SEPA zone.
To send SEPA direct payments, you need:
Use the IBAN code as a standardised code of the debtor's account, thereby guaranteeing maximum security and facilitating the transactions performed between EU countries.
Have a Direct Debit Order which the issuer must arrange with all of its creditors.
Use a specific file format in line with the scheme used for the issue of debits.
Submissions can be made in two different ways, depending on whether the payment is between individuals or companies:
- SEPA direct payments
- B2B direct payments
Extension of payment information in SEPA bills to 640 characters
With the introduction of the SEPA payment scheme, the length of the information field on bills was reduced from 640 to 140 characters. However, CaixaBank is allowing its customers to send bills with an information field of up to 640 characters.
Depending on the bank to which the bill is sent, the payer can verify the full payment information.
If the bank receiving SEPA bills does not offer the www.ealia.es service, when the description of the item for which the bill is issued is longer than 140 characters, the payer will receive a bill with the description cut to 80 characters but will be given a tracking reference to view and print the bill with the full description at www.ealia.es.