The 2025 SEPA rulebooks define new address formats, expanded organisation identifiers, stricter return request rules, and updated SCT Inst processing requirements for all SEPA scheme participants.

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Disclaimer: This guide supplements – but does not replace – the European Payments Council (EPC) Rulebooks. Refer to the latest EPC Rulebook version for definitive requirements.

Key dates

Scope

The 2025 SEPA rulebooks apply to all direct and indirect participants in SEPA schemes.

Hybrid postal address

What the rulebooks say

The 2025 SEPA rulebooks introduce a hybrid address format alongside the existing structured format. Unstructured addresses will no longer be accepted after 22 November 2026.

See the Address object reference for the full attribute list.

What you need to do

Incoming payments. No change required. Mambu Payments already supports structured and hybrid addresses.

Payment orders. Migrate originating_account and receiving_account addresses to structured or hybrid format before 22 November 2026.

Organisation identification

What the rulebooks say

The 2025 SEPA rulebooks allow LEI, anyBIC, and one occurrence of Othr as organisation identification attributes. When an organisation has multiple identifiers, use default_other_identifier to specify the default.

What you need to do

Incoming payments. No change required.

Payment orders. No change required for originating_account and receiving_account. A migration is required for ultimate_originator.organization_identification.

Migrating ultimate_originator.organization_identification

The organization_identification object is changing from a flat structure to an expanded one. A migration phase allows both formats.

Current structure:

"organization_identification": {
  "bank_code": string | null,
  "other": string | null
}

Migration phase (both old and new attributes accepted):

"organization_identification": {
  "bank_code": string | null,
  "other": string | null,
  "legal_entity_identifier": string | null,
  "business_identification_code": string | null,
  "default_other_identifier_type": string | null,
  "others": [
    {
      "type": string,
      "value": string
    }
  ]
}

Target structure (old attributes removed):

"organization_identification": {
  "legal_entity_identifier": string | null,
  "business_identification_code": string | null,
  "default_other_identifier_type": string | null,
  "others": [
    {
      "type": string,
      "value": string
    }
  ]
}

During the migration phase, Mambu Payments applies the following precedence rules:

1. If business_identification_code is set, it takes precedence over bank_code. If only bank_code is set, its value is copied to business_identification_code.
2. If others contains at least one element, it takes precedence over other. If only other is set, its value is copied to an element in others with type set to unknown.

Single return request per payment

What the rulebooks say

The 2025 SEPA rulebooks allow only one return request per SCT and SCT Inst payment.

What you need to do

Incoming payments. If you receive more than one return request, the Mambu Payments support team will contact you.

Payment orders. The API returns a 409 Conflict status code if a return request already exists for the payment.

SCT Inst processing time

What the rulebooks say

The 2025 SEPA rulebooks define the following processing timeline for SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) payments:

What you need to do

Incoming payments. incoming_payment objects and related events now include initiated_at for SCT Inst payments. Use initiated_at to compute the maximum execution time target. Reject payments received more than seven seconds after initiation. Mambu Payments does not calculate the target or reject payments automatically.

Payment orders created via API. Include initiated_at and set auto_approval to true.

Payment orders created via the dashboard or file ingestion. Mambu Payments sets initiated_at automatically. File auto_approval is always true regardless of your configuration.

SCT Inst maximum amount

What the rulebooks say

The maximum amount for an SCT Inst payment increases from €100,000.00 to €999,999,999.99.

What you need to do

No change required. Mambu Payments already supports amounts up to €999,999,999.99.

Obligation to notify SCT Inst debtor

What the rulebooks say

The debtor PSP must notify its customer when funds have been credited to the beneficiary's account.

What you need to do

Use the payment_order.executed event as confirmation that funds have been credited. No additional integration is required.

Related

• Address object reference
• Organisation identification reference
• Status codes reference
• Payment order lifecycle