Posted on 27th February 2025
SEPA Banking Changes Coming in 2025
The European Payments Council has announced several major changes in the SEPA Instant Payments Rulebook that will affect many users in Ireland. These updates, driven by the European Payments Council and the Instant Payment Regulation (IPR), will impact a huge number of organisations across Europe and require some adaption for those that are not prepared. Understanding these changes and adapting your finance systems is crucial for staying compliant.
How Will this Affect Your Finance System?
To comply with SEPA’s new standards, your finance system will need to accommodate these mandatory updates in order to maintain compliance and avoid payment disruptions.
What this means is that your payment files must do three things:
- Use structured postal address fields: Implement dedicated fields for Street Name, Town Name, and Postcode.
- Transition to the ISO 20022 payment format: Replace legacy messaging formats with the ISO 20022 standard.
- Support real-time payments: Ensure your system can efficiently and securely process instant payments.
These are significant updates, and your organisation must prepare their payment systems well in advance of the 2025 deadline this November.
What do you need to before November 2025?
It is important to prepare your finance system and department for the upcoming changes. For those that are not prepared, there is a risk that your financial process within your systems will face the risk of payment rejections, operational disruptions, and potential compliance penalties.
At IBSS, we’re dedicated to making your transition to the new SEPA standards as seamless as possible. That’s why we’ve built full SEPA compliance into our latest platform update – Integra R25, launching in March 2025. Upgrading to Integra R25 from Integra 2 or a previous version of Integra Centros will help ensure compliance and prevent payment rejections.
Still using Integra 2? Now is the time to plan your upgrade to Integra Centros to stay ahead of the SEPA changes and ensure a smooth transition.
Act Now to Avoid Disruptions
To allow ample time for the transition contact your Account Manager today to:
- Assess your finance system’s readiness for SEPA 2025
- Schedule your upgrade to Integra R25
- Get expert guidance on a smooth transition
What Changes are Coming To SEPA in 2025?
In the 2023 rulebook (https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/document-library/rulebooks/2025-sepa-credit-transfer-rulebook-version-10), customer notifications (positive or negative) about payment status were optional. Banks could choose how or if to inform customers. And there was no clear guidance on how to handle payment failures.
While the standard SEPA Rulebook has remained mostly unchanged since 2023, there are new updates coming on the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) Rulebook, which brings crucial clarifications to align instant payments with the Instant Payment Regulation (IPR).
In the 2025 rulebook, real-time notifications will now become mandatory, and banks must communicate transaction outcomes in real-time. While the format of notifications (e.g., SMS, email) is not prescribed, banks must offer flexible options. The aims of these changes are to increase transparency and build customer trust in the process.
These changes will introduce significant technical updates to the Payment File(s) of your finance system, including new fields and a mandatory transition of the payment format, ensuring a more standardised and efficient payment process across Europe.
Beyond notifications, the 2025 updates introduce substantial technical modifications to payment files. This includes new data fields and a mandatory transition to the ISO 20022 payment format. This standardization will streamline payment processing across the SEPA region.
If you have any questions or to discuss next steps, reach out to your Account Manager for assistance.
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