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SEPA Credit Transfers

The SEPA Credit Transfer is the uniform European standard for account-to-account transfer of euro amounts within and between all 41 SEPA countries, including the Netherlands.

What is SEPA Credit Transfer?

A SEPA Credit Transfers transfer is a uniform European account-to-account payment method for transferring a euro amount directly from one payments account with an IBAN account number to another, within the Netherlands or to and from another SEPA country. Account-to-account transfers are also referred to as ‘transfers’ or ‘payments’.

This European transfer is made in accordance with the standard agreements for a so-called SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT). As a result, it just as easy to transfer a euro amount within the Netherlands as from or to, for example, the SEPA countries Spain, Poland, and even the UK and Iceland. The UK and Iceland are not part of the EU but are SEPA countries.

How can you make a transfer?

All major Dutch banks allow you to make digital transfers via mobile banking using a bank’s app on a smartphone or tablet, and via internet banking using a web browser on a laptop or desktop computer.

At the four largest Dutch banks—ABN AMRO, ING, Rabobank, and ASN Bank (formerly SNS)—you can also make transfers using a paper transfer form that you send to your bank by post in a stamped envelope.

A company or institution can also submit transfers digitally to its bank in a bundle or batch, for example for monthly salary or invoice payments. To do so, the business customer must submit all transfer orders in a digital file in a standard XML format. The guidelines of the Dutch SCT Implementation Guidelines apply to this batch submission.

How long does a transfer take?

Within the Netherlands, a normal single transfer is almost always credited to the recipient’s payments account within a few seconds.

Such a transfer to or from another eurozone country, such as Germany or Spain, usually also reaches the recipient within 10 seconds. European transfers to SEPA countries with a currency other than the euro, such as Poland or Switzerland, may take longer, up to the end of the next business day.

If a random SEPA Credit Transfers for an amount in euros is not credited to the recipient’s payments account within 10 seconds, it must still be credited to that payments account by the end of the next working day at the latest.

Protection of personal data

For SEPA Credit Transfers transfers, banks only pass on the name and IBAN of the payer to the recipient. This information is essential for many recipients to be able to correctly process an incoming transfer in their accounts, for example for an energy company or landlord. However, no address or date of birth is included with the transfer.

Incorrect transfers

If a customer of a Dutch bank accidentally transfers money to the wrong Dutch IBAN, there is an interbank Procedure for Undue Payments (POB – Procedure Onverschuldigde Betalingen in Dutch) that allows that bank customer to ask the (unknown) recipient to refund the transfer. The payer can request this from their own Dutch bank.

If a large business customer or a bank makes incorrect transfers, for example for incorrect amounts or duplicate transfers, there is the Procedure for Reversal Entries (Procedure Herstelboekingen in Dutch) between Dutch banks that can be used to correct the error.