You obtain a SEPA creditor identifier through the relevant national issuing route, with your creditor payment service provider required to provide or support receipt of one if you lack it (Creditor Identifier Overview). It identifies you as the creditor independently of your account relationship. You can consult the national issuance procedures and eligibility criteria to determine where to apply, and use the creditor identifier together with the unique mandate reference to identify a mandate.
How do I get a SEPA creditor identifier for my business?
Start with your creditor payment service provider if your business does not already have an identifier: it must provide or support receipt of one (Creditor Identifier Overview). The European Payments Council’s Creditor Identifier Overview explains that this support can include directing you to a central issuing entity in the country where you are registered.
National issuing bodies set their own eligibility criteria, so a route available in one SEPA country does not establish eligibility in another (Creditor Identifier Overview). For your application, follow the relevant country’s procedures and the criteria set by its responsible body.
For a UK SEPA creditor identifier, apply through your creditor payment service provider, which is the issuing entity (Creditor Identifier Overview). The UK has no central issuer, central creditor identifier database or central validation service. The issuing institution does not have to be registered in the UK, and the Overview reports no national limitations on creditors wishing to apply.
In France, Banque de France attributes identifiers and manages the register (Creditor Identifier Overview). The institution holding your creditor account submits the request to Banque de France, receives the identifier and passes it to you. That institution must have the required agreement to operate in France.
A French application requires both an account with a payment service provider in France and business activity in France (Creditor Identifier Overview). Under those conditions, resident and non-resident entities can obtain a French identifier if they do not already have one from another SEPA country.
For Germany, your business must be formally registered there to apply for a German identifier (Creditor Identifier Overview). For other countries, use the relevant national entry in the Overview to identify the application procedure and responsible issuing body.
Where to apply for a creditor identifier
Application route | Rule | Eligibility or route check |
|---|---|---|
Start with your creditor payment service provider | When a prospective creditor lacks an identifier, its creditor payment service provider must provide or support receipt of one. | Check whether your business already has an identifier before requesting one. |
UK: apply through the creditor payment service provider | Individual creditor payment service providers issue UK identifiers; there is no central issuing entity. | The issuing institution does not have to be registered in the UK. |
France: apply through the institution holding the creditor account | That institution submits the request to Banque de France and relays the identifier to the creditor. | Check for an account with a payment service provider in France, business activity in France and, for resident or non-resident entities, no existing identifier from another SEPA country. |
Germany: Deutsche Bundesbank is the issuing contact | The German issuing entity is Deutsche Bundesbank. | Check that the creditor is formally registered in Germany. |
What does a SEPA creditor identifier identify, and can I use it across Europe?
An identifier based on a national identifier from any SEPA country can be used throughout SEPA (SEPA Direct Debit Core Scheme Rulebook).
Each identifier refers unambiguously to a particular creditor, although a creditor may use more than one identifier (SEPA Direct Debit Core Scheme Rulebook). The creditor can be a legal entity, an association without legal personality or a person acting in that role.
The European Payments Council’s SEPA Direct Debit Core Scheme Rulebook requires this identification to remain stable over time. That stability enables payers and their institutions to identify the creditor for refunds, complaints and checks that a mandate exists when collections are presented.
What format does a SEPA creditor identifier have?
A SEPA creditor identifier combines a country code, check digits, a creditor business code and a nationally defined identifying part (Creditor Identifier Overview). The national part follows the structure defined by the relevant national community, so its content depends on the country’s rules.
According to European Payments Council AISBL, its Creditor Identifier Overview, issued on 5 October 2025, places the ISO country code in positions 1–2 and the check digits in positions 3–4. According to European Payments Council AISBL, its Creditor Identifier Overview specifies ISO 7064 Mod 97-10 for calculating those check digits.
The EPC’s same dated Overview places the creditor business code in positions 5–7, followed by the country-specific part from position 8 onwards (Creditor Identifier Overview). The default business code is ZZZ, which you may retain or replace with a code for your own business purposes.
You can use that business code to distinguish service units or business lines (Creditor Identifier Overview). You may change it as your needs change while the identifier retains its role as your unique creditor identity.
The UK format uses GB as its country code and SDD as its scheme code (Creditor Identifier Overview). In the EPC’s same dated Overview, the UK scheme code occupies positions 8–10 and the first four characters of the issuing institution’s BIC occupy positions 11–14.
The EPC’s same dated Overview assigns positions 15–20 to your Bacs Service User Number, if you have one, or six zeros if you do not (Creditor Identifier Overview). It assigns positions 21 up to 35 to a portion determined by the issuing institution, using alphanumeric Latin characters only.
For your UK application, a Bacs Service User Number is therefore a possible component of the SEPA identifier rather than a prerequisite built into that format (Creditor Identifier Overview). The creditor business code is excluded from the check-digit calculation.
How does the identifier relate to my mandate reference and each collection?
Your creditor identifier identifies the collecting creditor and is needed on mandates and forthcoming collections (Creditor Identifier Overview). Your unique mandate reference identifies a particular mandate for that creditor (SEPA Direct Debit Core Scheme Rulebook).
The creditor business code is excluded from the creditor identifier used in combination with the unique mandate reference to determine mandate uniqueness (SEPA Direct Debit Core Scheme Rulebook).
The same mandate reference must be unique in combination with that identifying part of your creditor identifier (SEPA Direct Debit Core Scheme Rulebook). Your records must allow mandate data to be retrieved indefinitely when a third party supplies that combination.
Information from the signed mandate must be sent to your creditor payment service provider as part of each transaction based on that mandate (SEPA Direct Debit Core Scheme Rulebook).
Your creditor’s reference for the direct debit transaction has a separate job: it uniquely identifies each collection you present to your creditor payment service provider (SEPA Direct Debit Core Scheme Rulebook). It travels through the collection process until finality and must be returned by the parties involved in exception handling.
You define that transaction reference’s internal structure, and it need only be meaningful to you (SEPA Direct Debit Core Scheme Rulebook). If you provide no transaction reference, your creditor payment service provider must supply the default value Not Provided.
Sources
- Creditor Identifier Overview, European Payments Council AISBL, 05 October 2025
- SEPA Direct Debit Core Scheme Rulebook, European Payments Council AISBL, 30 September 2026