Implementing SEPA in Au s t r ia

Transcription

1 Implementing SEPA in Au s t r ia All you need to know for a successful SEPA migration Introduction This document gives you an overview of all the country specific information you need to implement successfully your migration to SEPA in Austria. Intending to provide a global picture of the impact of SEPA on your organization, it will help you understand all the aspects you need to take into account in order to migrate your payment activities. REGULATORY UPDATE: ADDITIONAL TRANSITION PERIOD The European authorities agreed on allowing banks and other payment providers to process payments that differ from the SEPA format for an extra six months (amending EU Regulation N 260/2012). As a consequence, all parties (e.g. corporates, SMEs and Public Administrations) may continue to send payments and collections through non-xml formats until 1 st of August Each Member State has taken a position towards the application of this proposal. In Austria, legacy formats (such as Edifact) are accepted until 1 st August Regarding direct debits, new creditor Identifiers are not accepted under legacy scheme since 1 st February 2014.

2 SEPA Credit Transfers (SCT) Overview of the domestic formats Today Austria is supporting two credit transfer formats (Edifact V3 Paymul, ATIB), additionally to SCT. If you are initiating credit transfers from Austrian channels, identify which format you use currently. For each format, use the table below to understand until when you can use them according to the regulation. This is key information to take into account in your migration plan. The validity of a format can be one of the following: - Phased out: in scope of the SEPA end date, the format remains accepted for an additional transition period. After this period, you must use another format. - Waived: Some formats received a waiver, that authorizes their usage until 1 st of February Note that the authorization concerns the format sent by the debtor only. The following steps operated by the banks will strictly follow the SEPA scheme. Therefore, these payments will be reported as SEPA payments on your account statements. - Part of a niche product : Member states can declare a niche product if the relying product presents less than 10% market share (based on ECB statistics). These products will remain usable until 1 February So if you are using a waived format or a format supporting a niche product, it means you have two extra years, until 1 February 2016, to migrate the related credit transfer system. Of course, you keep the possibility to migrate now. Edifact V3 Paymul ATIB Description National Format for domestic and international Payments Paper-based transactions which could not be translated into SEPA transactions Validity Domestic payments: Phased out. Remains accepted until the 1 st of August 2014 International payments: Phased out in 2016 Niche product The product is maintained as today until the 1 st of February 2016

3 Comparison of domestic and SEPA transfers properties It is important to understand the impact of switching from one scheme to another. Besides using a new format, migrating to SEPA also influences your operational team and your beneficiaries. While you are identifying your migration approach, make sure to understand all the related impacts by analysing the comparison table below. EDIFACT V3 Paymul SCT Does the local format allow SCT collections? Aligned: all the mandatory information is foreseen in the format Book date / Value date Debit: D Credit: Standard: D* Urgent: D Debit: D Credit: Standard: D+1 Urgent: D Settlement date D D D: Execution date set in the credit transfer * in case of cross-border payments with currency conversion, the value date will be D+2 Implementation of the PAIN.001 PAIN.001 is the XML standard used for the communication between the debtor/initiator and his bank. Besides considering the format proposed by the EPC, there are two specific points to take into account: Choosing the correct version PAIN.001 currently exists in 4 versions. A company that starts its migration today is advised to implement the last version PAIN , which is defined in the Rulebook 6 (downloadable on the EPC website). PAIN was rejected by the banks and the corporates. Local specificities regarding the PAIN.001 Austrian banks agreed to setup their own XML standard called STUZZA. (downloadable on the website).

4 SEPA Direct Debits (SDD) Today Austria is supporting two domestic direct debit formats besides the SDD. If you are currently initiating collections in Austria, identify which format you use and make sure to understand until when they remain supported according to the regulation. The validity of a format can be one of the following: - Phased out on the 1 st of February 2014 (the SEPA end date): the format will not be allowed anymore after the end-date. You must therefore use another format. - Waived: Some formats received a waiver, that authorize their usage until 1 st of February Note that the authorization concerns the format sent by the creditor only. The following steps operated by the banks will strictly follow the SEPA scheme. Therefore, these payments will be reported as SEPA payments on your account statements. - Part of a niche product : Member states can declare a niche product if the relying product presents less than 10% market share (based on ECB statistics). Niche products will remain usable until the 1 st of February So if you are using a waived format or a format supporting a niche product, it means you have until the 1 st of February 2016 to migrate your related direct debit system. Of course, you keep the possibility to migrate now. Type Description Validity SDD Continuity Edifact V3 Dirdeb - Einzugsermächtigung, is a nonpreauthorised Phased out on the 1 st Existing mandates Einzugsermächtigung Direct Debit Scheme of August 2014 remain valid for SDD Edifact V3 Dirdeb - Lastschriftverfahren Lastschriftverfahren is a form of pre-authorised Dired Debit Scheme used for B2B and B2C business. Phased out on the 1 st of August 2014 Core and SDD Cor1 Existing mandates remain valid for SDD Core. For SDD B2B new mandates are mandatory

5 Comparison of domestic and SEPA direct debits Especially regarding direct debits, it is important for you to understand the consequences of switching from one scheme to another. Besides using a new format, migrating to SEPA also influences your operational team, but moreover your customers. Hence while you are defining your migration approach, make sure to understand all the related impacts by analyzing the below comparison table. Edifact V3 Dirdeb SDD Core SDD B2B Format Edifact Format XML XML Does the local format allow SDD No, see New mandatory mandate information in SDD collections collections? Frequency Recurrent / One-Off Recurrent / One- Recurrent / One-Off Off Eligible All All Business only * debtor Collection sending date (D = payment due date) Mandate management and archiving Refund right Pre- Authorization (the debtor s bank confirms the mandate with the debtor) Pre- Notification D-2 D-5 (First / Oneoff) D-2 (Recurrent) D-1 (COR1) Mandate required but checked by the debtor bank Einzugermächtigungsverfahren: Conditional refund right within 8 weeks after the date of debit for an authorized transaction***. 13 months for an unauthorized transaction Lastschriftverfahren: No refund right for an authorized transaction. 13 months for an unauthorized transaction control of mandate by the debtor bank for Lastschriften D-1 (all) The creditor holds a paper version and manage the mandate Unconditional refund right within 8 weeks following the date of debit. 13 months for an unauthorized transaction Not required Not applicable Must be sent 14 days before payment date** No refund right for an authorized transaction. 13 months for an unauthorized transaction Control of mandate authorization by the debtor bank Must be sent 14 days before payment date** * In Austria, the microenterprises are considered as business, and can therefore be declared debtors of B2B mandates. ** The pre-notification time can be reduced if agreed between the debtor and the creditor. *** According to article 62 of the PSD.

6 Austrian specificity: Elektronisches Lastschriftverfahren (ELV) The direct debit ELV is a specific means broadly used especially in Austrian and German retail stores. It allows to initiate single transactions based on bank cards for which the customer must sign a receipt (agreement), which acts then as a mandate for a one-off transaction. In Austria, the ELV is a niche product (as it supports less than 10% of all transactions). The product will remain fully valid until the 1 st February New mandatory mandate information in SDD collections Generating SDD implies the use of some mandatory information concerning the mandate, that were not present in the domestic formats. Beside managing all the XML collection constraints, it means that you will probably have to adapt your IT and/or operational processes in order to retrieve, store and send the following information: IBAN : accounts of the creditor and of the debtors must be included in IBAN format. Debtor s bank BIC: this information is mandatory until the 1 st of February 2014 in domestic and the 1 st of February 2016 for cross-border transactions. If you have problems to enrich your collections with the BIC of your debtor s banks, BNP proposes a service of automatic enrichment. Mandate Unique Reference: Every mandate must now have an unique reference, that should be notified in every collection as well. SEPA Creditor ID: SEPA Creditor ID has to be acquired by the Austrian National Bank via the Austrina servicing bank Implementation of the PAIN.008 (SDD Collection) Austrian banks agreed to follow the standard recommendations of the EPC, without any specificity. Mandate Migration The Regulation N 260/2012, article 7 Validity of mandates and right to a refund, allows that existing mandates within a legacy direct debit scheme continue to be used within SEPA. Migrating a mandate means that you have already a domestic mandate that authorize you to debit the account of one of your customer, and that you will continue using the same mandate, but with SEPA compliant collections. A mandate is considered as migrated when its first related collection in SEPA format has been performed successfully. The benefit of the migration is that you can continue to debit your customers without asking them to re-sign a SEPA mandate. Note that a creditor have the choice to migrate gradually, and can continue using SDD and domestic collections simultaneously for different mandates. To migrate your mandates, you should consider the two main following points: Schemes allowed for mandate continuity All existing domestic mandates (Einzugsermächtigungsverfahren and Abbuchungsauftragsverfahren ) remain valid for SDD Core. SDD B2B will always require the signature of a new mandate.

7 Migration rules Austria follows the recommendation of the EPC. There is therefore no specific migration rules. SEPA Creditor Identifier (CI) To be able to use SEPA direct debit, your first administrative step is to get a SEPA Creditor Identifier. This number will identify your company when collecting from all the SEPA area. Note you have the possibility to request one SEPA CI for each of your business activities. How to get a SEPA Creditor Identifier? You can get your SEPA Creditor Identifier via your preferred bank. Once obtained, it can be used in any SEPA country, for any scheme and for collections through any bank. SEPA Creditor Identifier format Positions 1 and 2: AT (ISO Code of Austria) Positions 3 and 4 : Check digit Positions 5 to 7 : Creditor Business Code, to be chosen by the creditor (by default: ZZZ) Positions 8 to 18 :Creditor National Identifier. These numbers are attributed in consecutive ascending order, with leading 0. Mandate information Types of mandate Austrian mandates are currently only available in paper format. Electronic mandates will only come with the new European e-mandate regulation. Mandate Template Austria proposes the usage of the standard EPC template.

8 Conversion of BBAN to BIC + IBAN Conversion Service The Austrian STUZZA is offering the service to convert all Austrian BBAN to IBAN and BIC. Companies can directly get in contact with the STUZZA or via their preferred bank. How to build up the IBAN In Austria, the IBAN is composed of 20 characters with the following structure: The first two characters identify the country : AT. The next two characters correspond to the standard IBAN check digit. The remaining 16 characters correspond to the current BBAN. Example: AT How to build up the BIC On the Austrian National Bank Website ( a list containing all banks, the bank code and their BIC is available for download.