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 Text with EEA relevance

Article 1

Subject matter and scope

This Regulation does not apply to the following:

(a) payment transactions carried out between and within PSPs, including their agents or branches, for their own account;

(b) payment transactions processed and settled through large-value payment systems, excluding direct debit payment transactions which the payer has not explicitly requested be routed via a large-value payment system;

(c) payment transactions through a payment card or similar device, including cash withdrawals, unless the payment card or similar device is used only to generate the information required to directly make a credit transfer or direct debit to and from a payment account identified by BBAN or IBAN;

(d) payment transactions by means of any telecommunication, digital or IT device, if such payment transactions do not result in a credit transfer or direct debit to and from a payment account identified by BBAN or IBAN;

(e) transactions of money remittance as defined in point (13) of Article 4 of Directive 2007/64/EC;

(f) payment transactions transferring electronic money as defined in point (2) of Article 2 of Directive 2009/110/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 September 2009 on the taking up, pursuit and prudential supervision of the business of electronic money institutions (¹), unless such transactions result in a credit transfer or direct debit to and from a payment account identified by BBAN or IBAN.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

(1) ‘credit transfer’ means a national or cross-border payment service for crediting a payee’s payment account with a payment transaction or a series of payment transactions from a payer’s payment account by the PSP which holds the payer’s payment account, based on an instruction given by the payer;

(1a) ‘instant credit transfer’ means a credit transfer which is executed immediately, 24 hours a day and on any calendar day;

(1b) ‘payment initiation channel’ means any method, device or procedure through which payers can place payment orders with their PSP for a credit transfer, including online banking, a mobile banking application, an automated teller machine, or in any other way on the premises of the PSP;

(1c) ‘payment initiation service provider’ means a payment initiation service provider as defined in Article 4, point (18), of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council (²);

(1d) ‘name of the payee’ means, in respect of a natural person, the name and surname and, in respect of a legal person, the commercial or legal name;

(1e) ‘targeted financial restrictive measure’ means an asset freeze imposed on a person, body or entity or a prohibition on making funds or economic resources available to a person, body or entity, or for its benefit, either directly or indirectly, pursuant to restrictive measures adopted in accordance with Article 215 TFEU;

(1f) ‘Legal Entity Identifier’ or ‘LEI’ means a unique alphanumeric reference code based on the ISO 17442 standard assigned to a legal entity;

(2) ‘direct debit’ means a national or cross-border payment service for debiting a payer’s payment account, where a payment transaction is initiated by the payee on the basis of the payer’s consent;

(3) ‘payer’ means a natural or legal person who holds a payment account and allows a payment order from that payment account or, where there is no payer’s payment account, a natural or legal person who makes a payment order to a payee’s payment account;

(4) ‘payee’ means a natural or legal person who holds a payment account and who is the intended recipient of funds which have been the subject of a payment transaction;

(5) ‘payment account’ means a payment account as defined in Article 4, point (12), of Directive (EU) 2015/2366;

(6) ‘payment system’ means a funds transfer system with formal and standardised arrangements and common rules for the processing, clearing or settlement of payment transactions;

(7) ‘payment scheme’ means a single set of rules, practices, standards and/or implementation guidelines agreed between PSPs for the execution of payment transactions across the Union and within Member States, and which is separated from any infrastructure or payment system that supports its operation;

(8) ‘PSP’ means a payment service provider falling under any of the categories referred to in Article 1(1) of Directive 2007/64/EC and the legal and natural persons referred to in Article 26 of Directive 2007/64/EC, but excludes the bodies listed in Article 2 of Directive 2006/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2006 relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions (³) benefiting from a waiver under Article 2(3) of Directive 2007/64/EC;

(9) ‘PSU’ means a natural or legal person making use of a payment service in the capacity of payer or payee;

(10) ‘payment transaction’ means an act, initiated by the payer or by the payee of transferring funds between payment accounts in the Union, irrespective of any underlying obligations between the payer and the payee;

(11) ‘payment order’ means an instruction by a payer or payee to his PSP requesting the execution of a payment transaction;

(12) ‘interchange fee’ means a fee paid between the payer’s PSP and the payee’s PSP for direct debit transactions;

(13) ‘MIF’ means a multilateral interchange fee which is subject to an arrangement between more than two PSPs;

(14) ‘BBAN’ means a payment account number identifier, which unambiguously identifies an individual payment account with a PSP in a Member State and which can only be used for national payment transactions while the same payment account is identified by IBAN for cross-border payment transactions;

(15) ‘IBAN’ means an international payment account number identifier, which unambiguously identifies an individual payment account in a Member State, the elements of which are specified by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO);

(16) ‘BIC’ means a business identifier code that unambiguously identifies a PSP, the elements of which are specified by the ISO;

(17) ‘ISO 20022 XML standard’ means a standard for the development of electronic financial messages as defined by the ISO, encompassing the physical representation of the payment transactions in XML syntax, in accordance with business rules and implementation guidelines of Union-wide schemes for payment transactions falling within the scope of this Regulation;

(18) ‘large-value payment system’ means a payment system the main purpose of which is to process, clear or settle single payment transactions of high priority and urgency, and primarily of large amount;

(19) ‘settlement date’ means a date on which obligations with respect to the transfer of funds are discharged between the payer’s PSP and the payee’s PSP;

(20) ‘collection’ means a part of a direct debit transaction starting from its initiation by the payee until its end through the normal debiting of the payer’s payment account;

(21) ‘mandate’ means the expression of consent and authorisation given by the payer to the payee and (directly or indirectly via the payee) to the payer’s PSP to allow the payee to initiate a collection for debiting the payer’s specified payment account and to allow the payer’s PSP to comply with such instructions;

(22) ‘retail payment system’ means a payment system the main purpose of which is to process, clear or settle credit transfers or direct debits which are primarily of small amount, and that is not a large-value payment system;

(23) ‘microenterprise’ means an enterprise, which at the time of conclusion of the payment service contract, is an enterprise as defined in Article 1 and Article 2(1) and (3) of the Annex to Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC (⁴);

(24) ‘consumer’ means a natural person acting for purposes other than trade, business or profession in payment service contracts;

(25) ‘R-transaction’ means a payment transaction which cannot be properly executed by a PSP or which results in exception processing, inter alia, because of a lack of funds, revocation, a wrong amount or a wrong date, a lack of mandate or wrong or closed account;

(26) ‘cross-border payment transaction’ means a payment transaction initiated by a payer or by a payee where the payer’s PSP and the payee’s PSP are located in different Member States;

(27) ‘national payment transaction’ means a payment transaction initiated by a payer or by a payee, where the payer’s PSP and the payee’s PSP are located in the same Member State;

(28) ‘reference party’ means a natural or legal person on behalf of whom a payer makes a payment or a payee receives a payment.

Article 3

Reachability

Article 4

Interoperability

Payment schemes to be used by PSPs for the purposes of carrying out credit transfers and direct debits shall comply with the following conditions:

(a) their rules are the same for national and cross-border credit transfer transactions within the Union and similarly for national and cross-border direct debit transactions within the Union; and

(b) the participants in the payment scheme represent a majority of PSPs within a majority of Member States, and constitute a majority of PSPs within the Union, taking into account only PSPs that provide credit transfers or direct debits respectively.

For the purposes of point (b) of the first subparagraph, where neither the payer nor the payee is a consumer, only Member States where such services are made available by PSPs and only PSPs providing such services shall be taken into account.

Article 5

Requirements for credit transfer and direct debit transactions

PSPs shall carry out credit transfer and direct debit transactions in accordance with the following requirements:

(a) they must use the payment account identifier specified in point (1)(a) of the Annex for the identification of payment accounts regardless of the location of the PSPs concerned;

(b) they must use the message formats specified in point (1)(b) of the Annex, when transmitting payment transactions to another PSP or via a retail payment system;

(c) they must ensure that PSUs use the payment account identifier specified in point (1)(a) of the Annex for the identification of payment accounts, whether the payer’s PSP and the payee’s PSP or the sole PSP in the payment transaction are located in the same Member State or in different Member States;

(d) they must ensure that where a PSU that is not a consumer or a microenterprise, initiates or receives individual credit transfers or individual direct debits which are not transmitted individually, but are bundled together for transmission, the message formats specified in point (1)(b) of the Annex are used.

Without prejudice to point (b) of the first subparagraph, PSPs shall, upon the specific request of a PSU, use the message formats specified in point (1)(b) of the Annex in relation to that PSU.

PSPs shall carry out credit transfers in accordance with the following requirements, subject to any obligation laid down in the national law implementing Directive 95/46/EC:

(a) the payer’s PSP must ensure that the payer provides the data elements specified in point (2)(a) of the Annex;

(b) the payer’s PSP must provide the data elements specified in point (2)(b) of the Annex to the payee’s PSP;

(c) the payee’s PSP must provide or make available to the payee the data elements specified in point (2)(d) of the Annex.

PSPs shall carry out direct debits in accordance with the following requirements, subject to any obligation laid down in national law implementing Directive 95/46/EC:

(a) the payee’s PSP must ensure that: (i) the payee provides the data elements specified in point (3)(a) of the Annex with the first direct debit and one-off direct debit and with each subsequent payment transaction, (ii) the payer gives consent both to the payee and to the payer’s PSP (directly or indirectly via the payee), the mandates, together with later modifications or cancellation, are stored by the payee or by a third party on behalf of the payee and the payee is informed of this obligation by the PSP in accordance with Articles 41 and 42 of Directive 2007/64/EC;

(b) the payee’s PSP must provide the payer’s PSP with the data elements specified in point (3)(b) of the Annex;

(c) the payer’s PSP must provide or make available to the payer the data elements specified in point (3)(c) of the Annex;

(d) the payer must have the right to instruct its PSP: (i) to limit a direct debit collection to a certain amount or periodicity or both, (ii) where a mandate under a payment scheme does not provide for the right to a refund, to verify each direct debit transaction, and to check whether the amount and periodicity of the submitted direct debit transaction is equal to the amount and periodicity agreed in the mandate, before debiting their payment account, based on the mandate-related information, (iii) to block any direct debits to the payer’s payment account or to block any direct debits initiated by one or more specified payees or to authorise direct debits only initiated by one or more specified payees;

Where neither the payer nor the payee is a consumer, PSPs shall not be required to comply with point (d)(i), (ii) or (iii).

The payer’s PSP shall inform the payer of the rights referred to in point (d) in accordance with Articles 41 and 42 of Directive 2007/64/EC.

Upon the first direct debit transaction or a one-off direct debit transaction and upon each subsequent direct debit transaction, the payee shall send the mandate-related information to his or her PSP and the payee’s PSP shall transmit that mandate-related information to the payer’s PSP with each direct debit transaction.

Article 5a

Instant credit transfer transactions

PSPs as referred to in the first subparagraph shall ensure that all payment accounts that are reachable for credit transfers are also reachable for instant credit transfers 24 hours a day and on any calendar day.

The ECB and any national central bank, when not acting in its capacity as monetary authority or other public authority, may limit its offer of a payment service of sending instant credit transfers to the period of time during which it offers a payment service of sending and receiving non-instant credit transfers.

Notwithstanding Article 78(2) of Directive (EU) 2015/2366, if the payer and the payer’s PSP agree that execution of the payment order for an instant credit transfer is to take place at a specific time on a specific day or at the moment when the payer has put funds at the disposal of the PSP, the time of receipt of the payment order for an instant credit transfer shall be deemed to be the agreed time, regardless of the hour or calendar day.

By way of derogation from the first and second subparagraphs of this paragraph, the time of receipt of the payment order for an instant credit transfer shall be:

(a) for a non-electronic payment order for an instant credit transfer, the moment when the payer’s PSP has introduced the payment order information into its internal system, which shall occur as soon as possible after the non-electronic payment order for an instant credit transfer has been placed by the payer with the payer’s PSP;

(b) for an individual payment order for an instant credit transfer belonging to a package as referred to in paragraph 7 of this Article, where the conversion of that package into individual payment transactions is carried out by the payer’s PSP, the moment when the ensuing payment transaction has been unpacked by the payer’s PSP; the payer’s PSP shall start the conversion of the package immediately after it has been placed by the payer with the payer’s PSP and complete that conversion as soon as possible;

(c) for a payment order for an instant credit transfer from payment accounts that are not denominated in euro, the moment when the amount of the payment transaction has been converted into euro; such currency conversion shall take place immediately after the payment order for an instant credit transfer has been placed by the payer with the payer’s PSP.

When carrying out instant credit transfers, PSPs shall, in addition to the requirements set out in Article 5, comply with the following requirements:

(a) PSPs shall ensure that payers are able to place a payment order for an instant credit transfer through all of the same payment initiation channels as the ones through which those payers are able to place a payment order for other credit transfers;

(b) notwithstanding Article 83 of Directive (EU) 2015/2366, immediately after the time of receipt of a payment order for an instant credit transfer, the payer’s PSP shall verify whether all of the necessary conditions for processing the payment transaction are met and whether the necessary funds are available, reserve or debit the amount of the payment transaction from the account of the payer, and immediately send the payment transaction to the payee’s PSP;

(c) notwithstanding Article 83 and Article 87(2) of Directive (EU) 2015/2366, the payee’s PSP shall, within 10 seconds of the time of receipt of the payment order for an instant credit transfer by the payer’s PSP, make the amount of the payment transaction available on the payee’s payment account in the currency in which the payee’s account is denominated and confirm the completion of the payment transaction to the payer’s PSP;

(d) notwithstanding Article 87(1) of Directive (EU) 2015/2366, the payee’s PSP shall ensure that the credit value date for the payee’s payment account is the same date as the date on which the payee’s payment account is credited by the payee’s PSP with the amount of the payment transaction; and

(e) immediately upon receiving the confirmation of completion referred to in point (c), or where no such confirmation of completion is received by the payer’s PSP within 10 seconds of the time of receipt of the payment order for an instant credit transfer, the payer’s PSP shall, free of charge, inform the payer, as well as, where applicable, the payment initiation service provider, whether the amount of the payment transaction has been made available on the payee’s payment account.

PSPs shall not impose limits on the number of payment orders that can be submitted in a package of instant credit transfers which are lower than the limits they impose in respect of packages of other credit transfers.

PSPs as referred to in paragraph 1 that are located in a Member State whose currency is not the euro shall offer PSUs the payment service of receiving instant credit transfers in euro as laid down in this Article by 9 January 2027, and the payment service of sending instant credit transfers in euro as laid down in this Article by 9 July 2027.