SEPA Direct Debit

The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Direct Debit is a standardized payment method for bank-to-bank transactions within the European Union. Adyen currently supports the SEPA Direct Debit Core scheme and not the SEPA Direct Debit B2B scheme. The Core scheme supports both business and personal bank accounts.

Both one-off and recurring payments are supported by SEPA Direct Debit.

Before an account can be debited, merchants must collect their shopper’s name and bank account numbers in IBAN format. During the payment flow, shoppers must accept a mandate that gives the merchant an authorization to debit the shopper’s account.

SEPA Direct Debit transactions have a limit of 500 EUR each. If you need higher limits, contact support.

Payment type	Payment flow	Countries	Currencies	Recurring	Refunds	Partial refunds	Multiple partial refunds	Separate captures	Partial captures	Multiple partial captures	Chargebacks
Direct Debit	direct	International	EUR

SEPA Mandates

Before debiting an account with SEPA Direct Debit, you must collect your customer’s name and bank account numbers in IBAN format. During the payment flow, customers must accept a mandate that authorizes you to debit their account. We can generate this mandate on your behalf and present it to your customers.

The steps for collecting a mandate include the following:

1. Collect the necessary shopper information via a secure digital channel, including:
   • Account holder name.
   • IBAN.
   • Billing address. This is required for the following country codes: AL, AD, MD, MC, ME, MK, SM, RS, CH, GB, VA, GG, IM JE, PM.
2. Present the mandate to the shopper. The mandate must include:
   • Your creditor details (name, address, creditor ID).
   • The standardised authorization text.
   • The customer data that was just entered (name, IBAN, address).
3. Request explicit authorization from the shopper, requiring them to perform an active action to sign.
   • Provide a clear unselected checkbox, for example, "I accept the SEPA mandate terms above".
   • Use a final confirmation button that is clearly labeled, for example, "Confirm payment".
4. Send a mandate confirmation to the shopper. This is usually an email with a PDF attachment.
   This confirmation must contain the exact details of the mandate they just authorized, including the Unique Mandate Reference (UMR) assigned to them and the date of signing.

Authorization text template

The following standard authorization text should be shown so the customer can implicitly sign the mandate during the payment flow. Replace {Name of merchant} with your creditor name.

By providing your payment details and confirming this payment, you authorize (A) {Name of Merchant} and Adyen, our payment service provider, to send instructions to your bank to debit your account and (B) your bank to debit your account by the payment instruction. As part of your rights, you're entitled to a refund from your bank under the terms and conditions of your agreement with your bank. You must claim a refund within 8 weeks from the date your account was debited. You can request a statement from your bank explaining your rights.

Mandate cancellation

Shoppers can request to cancel a mandate at any time. To do so, they must contact their bank. Cancelling a mandate invalidates any future debit requests issued under it. If you wish to collect additional payments from the customer, a new mandate must be established. Adyen is only notified of a cancelled SEPA mandate when a payment is charged back.

You can also delete the stored SEPA Direct Debit payment details associated with a shopper via API or via Customer Area.

Creditor identifiers (Creditor ID)

The SEPA Creditor ID identifier is part of each SEPA Direct Debit payment and identifies the company requesting the payment.

The creditor ID lets customers identify who is debiting money from their bank account. By default, Adyen uses its creditor ID on your behalf when collecting SEPA Direct Debit payments. If you have your own creditor ID that you want to use for SEPA Direct Debit collections, please contact Support with your Creditor ID to have it configured.

The Creditor Name that shows up on bank statements is determined by the merchant name parameter configured on your SEPA Direct Debit payment method. If you want to have this changed, please contact Support with the name you want to have show on the Shopper’s bank statement.

SEPA Direct Debit notification

The SEPA Direct Debit rulebook requires that you notify your customer every time you debit their account. You must send this notification at least one day before initiating the SEPA Direct Debit payment. To ensure that customers recognize the SEPA Direct Debit payment and don’t initiate a chargeback, we recommend including the following information as part of the debit notification to customers:

• The last 4 digits of the customer's bank account.
• The amount to be charged.
• The SEPA creditor identifier.
  • Adyen’s creditor identifier - NL48ZZZ342764500000, or
  • Your own creditor identifier
• The creditor name: The merchant name assigned to your payment method.
• Your contact details.

Chargebacks

If a shopper for some reason wants the funds from a payment returned, they can ask their bank for a refund. This is referred to as a chargeback.

For SEPA, the chargeback process gives significant consumer rights to the shopper. They have:

• Eight weeks to dispute a SEPA payment without providing a reason.
• Thirteen months to dispute an unauthorised or incorrect SEPA payment when they provide evidence to their bank.

A SEPA chargeback notification can indicate that:

• The shopper disputed the charge.
• There were insufficient funds in the shopper's bank account.
• The bank account was inactive.
• Direct debit is blocked on this bank account, either in general or for this creditor specifically.
• There was a technical error.

For guidelines when a dispute is raised, see SEPA chargebacks and SEPA Dispute reason codes.

Refunds

You can refund SEPA Direct Debit payments anytime after the original payment has settled. You can perform full or partial payments.

Important considerations

Shoppers can dispute a payment with their bank even after you’ve issued a refund, potentially resulting in two credits for the same payment. Refunding a SEPA Direct Debit payment is risky if there is an ongoing dispute with the shopper.

When to issue refunds

Adyen recommends issuing SEPA Direct Debit refunds only when:

1. The shopper is trusted and verified.
2. You have confirmed with the shopper that you are processing the refund.
3. At least 7 days have passed since the original payment.

Shopper communication

Consider the following guidelines:

• Always inform shoppers immediately when issuing a refund, explaining that it may take a few business days to appear in their account.
• If you accidentally charge a shopper, contact them immediately to prevent disputes.
• If you need assistance processing a refund, contact Adyen support.

More frequently asked questions

Is SEPA Direct Debit supported everywhere?

SEPA Direct Debit is supported anywhere in the European Union, as well as a number of non-EU countries, as long as the debited account’s currency is EUR. View the list of SEPA Scheme Countries, or if applicable, view the full list of SEPA participants, which includes non-EU countries that also support SEPA Direct Debit.

Is there a maximum transaction amount limitation for SEPA Direct Debit?

While it will ultimately always depend on your customer’s bank, there are still some limitations that apply. When requesting SEPA Direct Debit, consider checking with the Adyen team what could apply to your business model.

Is zero value authorization supported by SEPA Direct Debit?

While zero authorization is technically possible, it usually adds little value because in such a case, Adyen would only store the IBAN but not send anything to the issuer to validate it.

Instead, we recommend that you first authenticate the customer with an IBAN-based payment method that requires strong customer authentication where possible. This way, Adyen ensures that the customer's IBAN is valid and that they have access to it rightfully.

It's also essential to provide your customer with a fallback mechanism to provide their payment details (IBAN and Name) so they can sign up with an IBAN of their choice. You can do so using PayByLink, where a customer can fill in the IBAN and name, or via a manual/offline process during which you collect the IBAN and name of the customer to enroll.

We also advise charging your customer a minimum amount of 0.1 EUR, which you can refund once the funds have been paid out to your account. This ensures the IBAN is both stored and validated.

Is SEPA Direct Debit supported for B2B?

Adyen doesn’t offer the SEPA Direct Debit B2B scheme. However, if you want to accept SEPA Direct Debit payments from other companies, you can use the standard SEPA DD (Core) scheme, which accepts both B2C and B2B payments.

How do you want to integrate?

See also