Before your first SEPA Direct Debit Core collection, you need the customer's IBAN in the correct form, because the payer must communicate its payment account identifier before the first direct debit and that identifier must be an IBAN (1). Check the format and check digits yourself before submission, since an invalid format or wrong IBAN check digit is a technical reason for a Reject (2). Confirm that the account is held with a Participant located within SEPA, since the debtor and creditor must each hold an account with a Participant located within SEPA (3).
How do I verify a customer's IBAN before starting a SEPA Core collection?
Ask the customer for their payment account identifier before the first direct debit transaction (1). The regulation's technical requirements state that the payment account identifier must be an IBAN.
Before you submit, test the format and check digits of the IBAN (2). Invalid format and a wrong IBAN check digit are listed as technical reasons for a Reject, so an error here comes back as a rejected collection rather than a completed debit.
Confirm that the account is held with a bank located within SEPA (3). The Scheme is applicable in the countries listed in the EPC List of SEPA Scheme Countries, and the debtor and creditor must each hold an account with a Participant located within SEPA.
Finally, confirm that the Mandate is signed by the Debtor as account holder or by a person in possession of a form of authorisation (such as a power of attorney) from the Debtor to sign the Mandate on his behalf (2). It must be signed by the account holder, or by someone holding an authorisation such as a power of attorney from the account holder.
IBAN checks before the first SEPA Core collection
Check | Rule it rests on | How to verify |
|---|---|---|
IBAN received before the first collection | The payer communicates its payment account identifier before the first direct debit transaction | Confirm the customer's IBAN is on file before you submit the first collection |
Identifier is an IBAN | The payment account identifier must be the IBAN | Ask for the IBAN itself and do not accept a national account number in its place |
Format and check digits are valid | Invalid format and a wrong IBAN check digit are technical reasons for a Reject | Run a format and check-digit test on the IBAN before you submit |
Account is held within SEPA | Debtor and creditor must each hold an account with a Participant located within SEPA | Check the IBAN's country against the EPC list of SEPA scheme countries |
Mandate signer is entitled to sign for the account | The mandate must be signed by the debtor as account holder or by a person with authorisation such as a power of attorney | Check that the signer is the account holder or holds written authorisation from them |
Does the verified IBAN have to match what I send with every collection?
Yes, because the Account Number of the Debtor is the IBAN of the Debtor's account, to be debited for a Collection (2). The IBAN is not a one-time entry. Each collection carries the IBAN of the debtor's account to be debited, together with the unique mandate reference and the date the mandate was signed, where the mandate was given after 31 March 2012 (1).
The debtor name is the name of the Debtor as registered by the Creditor (2). The payee, or a third party on its behalf, must store the mandates together with later modifications or cancellation (1).
Any later modification or cancellation of a mandate is stored by the payee or by a third party on its behalf, so record such changes there (1).
What happens if I submit an IBAN that fails the check, and how do I re-present the collection?
A technical error such as an invalid format or a wrong IBAN check digit can lead to a Reject (2). A Reject is a Collection that is diverted from normal execution, prior to inter-PSP Settlement.
If a rejected Collection is represented by the Creditor after correction, it must be presented again as the same type of direct debit as before (3).
Sources
- Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2012 establishing technical and business requirements for credit transfers and direct debits in euro and amending Regulation (EC) No 924/2009, Official Journal of the European Union, 14 March 2012
- SEPA Direct Debit Core Scheme Rulebook 2025 Version 1.1, European Payments Council, Date issued: 05 October 2025
- 2025 SEPA Direct Debit Core rulebook version 1.2, European Payments Council, 30 September 2026