SEPA Direct Debit Core supports consumer and business payers; SEPA Direct Debit B2B is for business payers. The key implementation choice is therefore not just which message format to send: it determines who can pay and what refund protections apply. Use Core if consumers must be eligible or its authorised-payment refund right is part of your product. Consider B2B for a business-only payer base that accepts the scheme’s different mandate process and the absence of a scheme refund right for authorised collections.
Core vs B2B: the differences that drive the choice
The European Payments Council (EPC) maintains separate rulebooks for the two schemes. Its Core rulebook Annex V summarizes the distinctions below; consult the operative rulebooks for detailed production requirements.
| Decision point | SDD Core | SDD B2B |
|---|---|---|
| Eligible payer type | Consumers and businesses | Businesses |
| Refund for an authorised collection | The debtor may request a refund within eight weeks of the debit. | No scheme refund right for an authorised collection. |
| Unauthorised collection | A refund request may be made within 13 months. | The EPC annex describes a 13-month route where the debtor considers the collection not covered by a B2B mandate. |
| Collection submission window | Submit no earlier than 14 calendar days before the due date and no later than one inter-PSP business day before it. | Same window as Core. |
| Latest return settlement after collection settlement | Five inter-PSP business days | Three inter-PSP business days |
The refund and timing limits are from the EPC’s 2025 comparison in Annex V of the 2025 SDD Core Rulebook. They are scheme-level limits, not a complete implementation specification.
Which scheme should your integration use?
Choose Core when consumers may pay
Core is the appropriate scheme if your payer population includes consumers. It also fits a product that promises the Core scheme’s refund right for authorised collections. Businesses can use Core too; a business payer does not by itself require B2B.
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Consider B2B for business-only collections
B2B may fit when every payer is a business and both parties can meet the B2B mandate process. It removes the scheme refund right for an authorised collection, so evaluate that consequence as a product and risk decision, not merely as a technical optimization. Do not describe B2B as “no refunds”: the EPC annex retains a route for a collection the debtor considers not covered by a B2B mandate.
Confirm eligibility with the PSP
Before selecting a scheme, confirm the debtor and creditor eligibility, mandate process, and supported markets with your payment service provider (PSP). EPC rulebooks establish scheme rules; PSP onboarding, bank processes, national clearing conventions, and API fields can add implementation-specific requirements.
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Implement the mandate and collection lifecycle
Model the mandate as a scheme-controlled lifecycle rather than treating a generic bank-debit token as sufficient. The EPC publishes mandate layouts, e-Mandate guidance, and clarification material alongside its rulebooks. Core has e-Mandate implementation guidance; the scheme materials also list B2B implementation guideline families. Map the applicable requirements to the PSP’s API and your evidence-retention process.
- Retain the mandate reference and creditor identifier.
- Represent mandate capture, amendment, cancellation, and retention explicitly.
- Distinguish first, subsequent, and one-off sequence information where required by the applicable guidelines and PSP interface.
- Reconcile each collection against its due date and settlement outcome.
- Handle rejects and returns as distinct operational outcomes, with scheme-specific timing and reason-code handling.
These are practical engineering checks based on EPC workflow materials; exact fields, validations, and operational steps depend on the current guideline and your PSP’s interface. Do not infer a universal API contract from the scheme rulebook.
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Use the current EPC rulebooks and message guidance
At the 2026 baseline, the EPC lists the 2025 SDD Core and SDD B2B rulebooks, version 1.2, as in effect from 30 September 2026. The 2025 implementation guidelines use the 2019 message version of ISO 20022. The EPC also publishes customer-to-PSP, inter-PSP, and e-Mandate implementation guidelines for Core.
Keep three layers distinct: the scheme business rules, ISO 20022 message guidance, and the PSP’s API contract. The EPC says its related XSDs instantiate the rules for technical validation and are not production schemas. As the EPC states, “Production instantiations should refer to the default ISO 20022 namespaces.” Use the applicable default namespaces in production rather than treating the EPC validation XSDs as production schemas. Start from the relevant EPC SDD scheme materials, then check the PSP’s current integration documentation.
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Address formats: the November 2026 cutoff is no longer current
The EPC’s September 2026 clarification removed the previously communicated 15 November 2026 end date for unstructured payer or payee address formats. The 2025 rulebooks version 1.2, effective 30 September 2026, delayed the planned cutoff; the EPC says it will set a new end date later after monitoring market adoption. Structured and hybrid address formats remain supported options.
For a durable integration, accept structured and hybrid addresses and keep address validation configurable. Avoid hard-coding the withdrawn November date as a rejection deadline; a future EPC rulebook or PSP notice may establish a replacement. The EPC’s clarification paper says: “The EPC will determine a new end date for this specific address format in due course based on the market and payment industry developments.” See the EPC clarification paper, version 5.1.
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What EPC rules do not settle for you
The EPC sources establish scheme-level requirements, not every national clearing convention, PSP onboarding condition, commercial API field, or bank-specific mandate process. Validate these against your chosen PSP’s current documentation and applicable scheme participant materials before production. The EPC expects the next regular rulebook versions no earlier than the end of Q3 2028, aligned with expected PSR and PSD3 timing; that forecast may change as EU legislative dates are confirmed. See the EPC rulebook library for current rulebook materials.
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