What is SEPA?
SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) is a payment integration initiative of the European Union. It enables individuals and businesses to make euro-denominated bank transfers to any of the 36 participating countries using a single, standardised format.
The key SEPA payment types are:
- SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) — standard bank transfers, settled in 1 business day
- SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) — instant payments, settled in seconds (where supported)
- SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) — pull payments for subscriptions and mandates
Why SEPA matters for your business
If you work with suppliers, contractors or employees across Europe, SEPA eliminates the need for expensive international wire transfers. Instead of paying £15–40 per transfer with a traditional bank, SEPA transfers typically cost under €1.
SEPA batch payments in Marchant — coming soon
SEPA batch payments are on the Marchant roadmap and not available yet. The planned flow is the one most finance teams expect: select the outstanding supplier bills you want to pay, generate a SEPA XML pain.001 file — the standard batch payment format — and upload it to your business bank's online portal so every payment settles in one batch.
What you can do today
- 1Connect your UK and EU accounts via open banking so transactions flow in daily
- 2Store your company's IBAN and BIC under Workspace Settings → Financial Settings
- 3Track supplier bills and their due dates in expenses and purchase orders
- 4Pay through your bank's own bulk-payment screen, then reconcile the batch against those bills in Marchant
We will update this guide when pain.001 generation ships.
Countries covered
SEPA covers all 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom (post-Brexit, SEPA access maintained), Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City, Andorra, and others.
SEPA batch payment files are on the Marchant roadmap — see pricing for what each plan covers today.