SEPA

What is SEPA?

SEPA or Single Euro Payments Area is the area in which residents, companies and other entities may pay and receive payments in euros on the territory of Europe, including domestic and cross-border transactions, under the same terms and conditions, with the same rights and obligations, regardless of their location within the area.In geographical terms, SEPA comprises the 27 EU Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.The basic elements of the SEPA system are three payment instruments:SEPA Credit Transfer (available as of 28 January 2008), SEPA Direct Debit (available as of 1 November 2010) and SEPA Cards Framework (alignment with the SEPA framework has been underway since 1 January 2008).The SEPA establishment project is managed by the European Payments Council and supported by the European Commission and the Eurosystem. More information on SEPA available at www.europeanpaymentscouncil.org and www.sepa.si.

What is SIMP?

Bankart established the SEPA infrastructure for small-value payments (SIMP). This is SEPA-compliant infrastructure used by the SEPA systems to process SEPA payment instruments.

SEPA payment systems within SIMP

Within SIMP, Bankart set up the following SEPA payment systems:

• SEPA Internal Credit Payments (SEPA IKP) – intended for the processing of credit payments in the SEPA standard within the country;

• SEPA External Credit Payments (SEPA EKP) – intended for the processing of cross-border credit payments in the SEPA standard;

• SEPA Core Direct Debit Scheme (SEPA EDD CORE) – as a rule intended for payers who are consumers;

• SEPA B2B Direct Debit Scheme (SEPA EDD B2B) – exclusively intended for payers that are legal entities, private persons and sole proprietors.

Advantages achieved by establishing the SEPA systems

With the establishment of SEPA IKP/SEPA EKP, Bankart enabled the banks and savings banks in Slovenia to offer their clients a single standard of payment with SEPA credit payment orders, regardless of whether the recipient of the payment is in Slovenia or any other Euro Area country.

By establishing SEPA EDD CORE and SEPA EDD B2B, Bankart enabled the providers of payment services in Slovenia:

• to offer their clients a single standard of direct debiting, regardless of whether the recipient of the payment is in Slovenia or any other Euro Area country; and

• to ensure accessibility for cross-border direct debits by the SEPA standard according to the CORE and B2B schemes.

Bankart among European clearing companies

With the unification of the standard for the payment with the SEPA credit payment orders and the unification of the standard for SEPA direct debiting within the Euro Area, any clearing company in Europe can provide processing of payments between banks and/or providers of payment services in a competitive environment.By establishing the SEPA systems, Bankart joined other European clearing companies which provide processing of SEPA credit payments according to a single standard and processing of SEPA direct debits according to a single standard.

SEPA IKP, SEPA EKP

The payment system SEPA IKP enables the execution of credit payment orders between participants in the system under the SEPA standard.Banks and savings banks participating in the SEPA IKP system are now able to offer their clients payments in compliance with the single standard of SEPA credit payments, currently used by more than 4,400 banks and savings banks in Europe, also for domestic payments.The use of this single standard considerably simplifies the execution of payment orders among banks and savings banks in different SEPA countries and is possible due to connections that exist between the clearing companies in this area.Therefore, (through its complementary system SEPA external credit payments – SEPA EKP and the Bank of Slovenia) Bankart is also able to provide connection with the trans-European payment system STEP2-SCT, managed by EBA Clearing, enabling all participants in Bankart’s system to access (pay and receive payments) transaction accounts kept by all 4,400+ participants in the SEPA credit payments system.

Bankart ensures the banks and savings banks using SEPA IKP and SEPA EKP the systems a uniform transaction price of 2 eurocents.

SEPA EDD CORE, SEPA EDD B2B

The European Payments Council (EPC) prepared and published the rules on the execution of direct debits by SEPA scheme.This established uniform rules for the execution of direct debits in the entire SEPA area, including the Slovenian providers of payment services and clients using domestic and cross-border payment transactions.

A SEPA direct debit is a payment service regulated by the rules on the execution of direct debits in euros in the entire SEPA area. These are based on two rulebooks for SEPA direct debits, namely the Core SEPA Direct Debit Scheme Rulebook and the B2B SEPA Direct Debit Scheme Rulebook. The CORE scheme is intended for SEPA direct debits primarily executed to the debit of natural persons, while the B2B scheme is intended exclusively for SEPA direct debiting between business entities. Within the payment service of SEPA direct debit, the receiver of the payment orders a payment transaction debiting the payer's account upon the payer's approval. The SEPA direct debit service is intended for both once-off payments and the payment of repeating (periodic) liabilities in euros.

Until now, payers were only able to use the direct debit payment transaction to settle their liabilities to payees in Slovenia in line with the rules on the national scheme NPI, processed through the Bankart Collection Centre. The migration of these direct debits to the SEPA direct debits scheme will expectedly begin in May 2011, when Bankart will, within the SIPM infrastructure, establish two new payment systems for the processing of SEPA direct debits between the providers of payment services in Slovenia for both schemes of SEPA direct debits. As of 1 November 2010 the payers have been able to settle their liabilities to payment receivers from the entire SEPA area upon approval of SEPA direct debiting issued by the payer to the payee.

As opposed to the national scheme, the SEPA direct debits schemes enable SEPA direct debiting every banking working day, they are not limited to the national territory, do not restrict the purpose of direct debiting, and also bring more favourable deadlines for the submission of data to the provider of payment services for SEPA direct debits by the payee.

Upon approval, submitted by the payer to the payee on paper or in the electronic form, the payee sends a payment order for SEPA direct debit through the payee's provider of payment services to the provider of payment services of the payer. The payer's provider of payment services receives the payment order for the debiting of the payment account of the payer, including the data on the payer's approval (the information on the payer's approval must be enclosed with each debiting order sent). The payer and the payee must have their payment accounts opened at the providers of payment services which approached to the SEPA direct debits schemes, which obliges them to execute direct debits within the country and cross-border debiting in accordance with the SEPA requirements.

Notes:

What is credit payment?

Credit payment is a payment ordered by the payer who submits a payment order, which is debited to the balance on the transaction account or covered by deposited cash and credited to the recipient of payment.

Participants in the SEPA internal credit payments system:

Abanka Vipa d.d., Banka Celje d.d., Banka Koper d.d., Bank of Slovenia, Banka Sparkasse d.d., Banka Volksbank d.d., BKS Bank AG, Delavska hranilnica d.d., Deželna banka Slovenije d.d., Factor banka d.d., Gorenjska banka d.d., Hranilnica Lon d.d., Hranilnica Vipava d.d., Hypo Alpe-Adria bank d.d., KD Banka d.d., Nova kreditna banka Maribor d.d., Nova Ljubljanska banka d.d., Poštna banka Slovenije d.d., Probanka d.d., Raiffeisen banka d.d., SKB banka d.d., Unicredit banka Slovenija d.d., Bank Association. 

Participants in the SEPA external credit payments system:

Abanka Vipa d.d., Banka Celje d.d., Bank of Slovenia, Banka Sparkasse d.d., Banka Volksbank d.d., BKS Bank AG, Delavska hranilnica d.d., Deželna banka Slovenije d.d., Factor banka d.d., Gorenjska banka d.d., Hranilnica Lon d.d., Hranilnica Vipava d.d., Hypo Alpe-Adria bank d.d., KD Banka d.d., Nova kreditna banka Maribor d.d., Nova Ljubljanska banka d.d., Poštna banka Slovenije d.d., Probanka d.d., Raiffeisen banka d.d.

What is SEPA direct debit?

SEPA direct debit is a payment instrument regulated by the rules on the SEPA scheme where the payee orders a payment transaction debiting the payer's account upon the payer's approval.

Participants in SEPA EDD CORE:

Abanka Vipa d.d., Banka Celje d.d., Bank of Slovenia, Banka Sparkasse d.d., Banka Volksbank d.d., BKS Bank AG, Delavska hranilnica d.d., Deželna banka Slovenije d.d., Factor banka d.d., Gorenjska banka d.d., Hranilnica Lon d.d., Hranilnica Vipava d.d., Hypo Alpe-Adria bank d.d., Nova kreditna banka Maribor d.d., Nova ljubljanska banka d.d., Poštna banka Slovenije d.d., Probanka d.d., SKB banka d.d.

Participants in SEPA EDD B2B:

Abanka Vipa d.d., Banka Celje d.d., Bank of Slovenia, Banka Volksbank d.d., Factor banka d.d., Gorenjska banka d.d., Hypo Alpe-Adria bank d.d., Nova kreditna banka Maribor d.d., Nova ljubljanska banka d.d., Probanka d.d.

Banks selected Bankart in the tender

Based on the tender published by the Bank Association of Slovenia, banks and savings banks selected the company Bankart d.o.o. to process their payments.Bankart also offered the most favourable terms and conditions and continuous high-speed processing for small-value payments (five times a day, i.e. every two hours, starting at 8.00 a.m.) which it has been offering to banks and savings banks and the users of payment services ever since 1998, when the Bank of Slovenia established the giro clearing system as part of the payment systems reform in Slovenia. 

On behalf of banks and savings banks participating in the SEPA IKP payment system, Bankart obtained the license of the Bank of Slovenia to form the SEPA IKP payment system and on its own behalf, as a clearing company, the license to provide SEPA IKP payment system services.
In March 2009, the new system took over the processing of payments from the giro clearing system, whereby the segment of small-value payments (up to EUR 50,000) has been finally transferred from the central banking environment to the commercial environment. The giro clearing system was terminated in July 2009.

E-Invoice

On the 1st of June 2011, Bankart d.o.o., Ljubljana, Procesiranje plačilnih instrumentov, introduced the E-Invoice System in co-operation with banks. Abanka Vipa d. d., Gorenjska banka d. d., Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank d. d., KD Banka d. d., Nova Ljubljanska banka d. d., Probanka d. d., Raiffeisen banka d. d. and UniCredit Banka Slovenija d. d. joined the uniform system on 26 September 2011 and Banka Sparskasse d. d., Delavska hranilnica d. d. and Poštna banka Slovenije d. d. on 3 October 2011. The new harmonised system allows the banks and the Public Payments Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (UJP) to send and receive electronic invoices to and from their clients using their own solutions (e.g. electronic banking services). E-Invoice exchange between the clients of different banks and the UJP is carried out through the so-called central processor, which is the role of Bankart. With the establishment of the E-Invoice System, Bankart expanded its processing services to the area of electronic invoice exchange.

What is E-Invoice?

E-invoice is an invoice issued by the issuer to the recipient in electronic form, which is sent to the recipient via E-Invoice System. The E-Invoice System allows for the exchange of invoices between the senders and recipients of invoices the electronic form.

The impact of E-Invoice is expected to be similar to that of E-Payments

The development of electronic operations is a topical process present in all areas of the contemporary business world and focused on the use of modern IT achievements for the purpose of business communications – exchange of data and documentation. One of the most topical processes is the development of electronic invoice (e-invoice), since the positive effects of introducing e-invoices are expected to be similar to the effects of introducing e-payments.

What are the benefits of the E-Invoice System

The introduction of issuing and receiving e-invoices has great potential benefits for all participants in the process. This brings considerable savings of handling and postal costs and simplifies the existing invoice issue and receipt processes in companies and receipt by consumers.

Bankart establishes the required infrastructure

Some companies in Slovenia are already  issuing electronic invoices, submitting them to recipients (natural and legal person) via diferent channels or e-mail. The e-invoice exchange is also offered to its clients (budget users) by the Public Payment Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (UJP). For the successful exchange of e-invoices, it is crucial to provide adequate infrastructure in which all banks and the UJP will participate, which will enable the achievement of the critical mass of users of the services provided.

Intention and goal of establishment of E-Invoice System

On the initiative of some banks and under the auspices of the Bank Asociation of Slovenia (BAS) an idea on setting up a system for electronic invoice exchange was formed in Slovenia in 2007. The goal of setting up this system is to provide the users of banking e-solutions and the UJP a simple electronic invoice exchange through established and secure connections. A pilot solution for electronic invoice exchange was established in 2008, first in two banks. After that, the so-called temporary system of electronic invoice exchange was set up, which seven banks joined. A parallel electronic invoice exchange was set up in Bankart on 1 June 2011.

Bankart expands the range of processing services

With the establishment of the E-Invoice System, Bankart expanded its processing services to the area of electronic invoice exchange. With the establishment of the E-Invoice System in Bankart, the banks and the UJP can now efficiently exchange documents in the electronic form, namely:

• e-invoice,
• e-return mail,
• e-login/logout for receiving e-invoices,
• statement of the e-invoice issuer on inclusion in the E-Invoice System.

Functioning of the E-Invoice System

In the E-Invoice System the received e-invoices are currently processed by the central processor every day in three daily clearing cycles, with the option of future upgrade of functionality, such as exchange of other electronic documents related to the issuing and receiving e-invoices.

The banks currently using the E-Invoice System

Banka Celje d. d., Banka Koper d. d., Banka Volksbank d. d. and Nova kreditna banka Maribor d. d. started using the E-Invoice System on 1 June 2011 and Deželna banka Slovenije d. d. on 20 June 2011.
Abanka Vipa d. d., Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank d. d., Nova Ljubljanska banka d. d., probanka d. d., Raiffeisen banka d. d. and UniCredit Banka Slovenija d. d. on 26 September 2011 switched from the temporary system to the Bankart system. On the same day, E-Invoice System started being used also by Gorenjska banka d. d. and KD Banka d. d.
Banka Sparskasse d. d., Delavska hranilnica d. d. and Poštna banka Slovenije d. d. will start using the system on 3 October 2011. Other banks and the Public Payments Administration of the Republic of Slovenia willgradually join the system.

Participants in the E-Invoice System

After all participants introduce the E-Invoice System there will be: Abanka Vipa d.d., Banka Celje d.d., Banka Koper d.d., Banka Sparkasse d.d., Banka Volksbank d.d., Delavska hranilnica d.d., Deželna banka Slovenije d.d., Factor banka d.d., Gorenjska banka d.d., Hranilnica Lon d.d., Hypo Alpe-Adria bank d.d., KD Banka d.d., Nova kreditna banka Maribor d.d., Nova ljubljanska banka d.d., Poštna banka Slovenije d.d., Probanka d.d., Raiffeisen banka d.d., SKB banka d.d., Unicredit banka Slovenija d.d., Public Payments Administration of the Republic of Slovenia.

Bankart collection centre

 
Establishment of the Bankart collection centre

The collection centre was established by commercial banks and savings banks, members of the Bank Association of Slovenia, in order to unify and rationalize procedures with new payment instruments operating among the participants of the payment system.

Tasks of the Bankart collection centre

The Bankart collection centre receives, sorts and forwards data or information in electronic form to all participants of the system and simultaneously manages relevant statistical monitoring of operations.

Subject of exchange

In compliance with the Agreement on the method of operations with payment instrument direct debit, within the framework of unlimited production, data of direct debit are exchanged through the Bankart collection centre. The Bank Association of Slovenia ratified the Agreement on  Octobre 13, 2011 and became valid on January 1, 2012.

Bankart – manager of the Bankart collection centre payment system

In September 2005 Bankart received approval from the Bank of Slovenia to carry out individual tasks in providing payment system services. As collection centre payment system manager Bankart takes care of:

• collection centre system management,
• suitable, high-quality and timely data processing in the Bankart collection centre,
• inclusion of new participants and management of central register of participants of the Bankart collection centre,
• conformity and updating of Bankart collection centre codes,
• production and preparation of the collection of statistics of data exchanged through the Bankart collection centre.

Participants of the Bankart collection centre

Today the Bankart collection centre includes all commercial banks and savings banks operating within the area of Slovenia, the Public Payments Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, most business partners of banks (legal entities) and some budget users (included through the PPARS).

Advantages of operating through the collection centre

• Signing a statement on inclusion, and corresponding appendices and agreements with contractual bank, which subsequently enables the business partner to operate through the Bankart collection centre with corresponding NPI with all clients, regardless of the bank with which they hold their accounts.
• Automated data exchange, which provides the business partner with a modern and friendly method of making payments, quick updating of data on payments made.
• Data exchange in compliance with prescribed standards, which excludes misunderstanding of the contents of exchanged data between the sender and the recipient.
• Data exchange in compliance with the defined schedule of data collection and processing, which enables the business partner to be acquainted with the hour of performed transaction at the time of successful transmission of transactions to the Bankart collection centre system.
• Possibility of indirect (through contractual bank) and direct data exchange with the Bankart collection centre, which enables the business partner always to exchange data and to solve potential claims with the same, chosen institution.
• Provision of feedback on the performance of transmitted transactions,  which enables the business partner to repeat transmission of data to the Bankart collection centre in the event of notification of a failed data transmission. 

Conditions of inclusion in the Bankart collection centre

For all participants of the Bankart collection centre system (commercial banks, business partners of banks, budget users) the conditions of inclusion are set out in the document “Guidelines and standards of data exchange through the collection centre“.

We have produced operating instructions for the bank’s business partners who wish to be included in operating through the Bankart collection centre »Inclusion of business partners in the collection centre«. They provide a detailed description of special features with direct debits.