Monday 21st December, 2015

Payments UK has launched a new tool to help Payment Service Providers (PSPs) when sending SEPA payments to the UK.

This comes nearly two months ahead of the 1st February 2016 regulatory deadline, where Businesses or individuals initiating payments will be no longer required to provide a BIC (Bank Identifier Code).

The new SEPA IBAN-Only directory will help PSPs derive the BIC from the IBAN (International Bank Account Number), which will still be used behind the scenes to route a SEPA payment correctly to UK beneficiaries. The directory can either be downloaded and integrated (via login to swift.com) into the end user’s back office systems to support Straight Through Processing, or accessed using the individual lookup facility.

Payments UK has brought the industry together to create this directory, which amalgamates data from SEPA receiving PSPs in the UK, to enable PSPs in the 34 SEPA countries to derive the correct BIC from a GB IBAN, and accurately route euro payments to the UK.

Maurice Cleaves, Chief Executive of Payments UK said:

"Payments UK has worked hard on behalf of the collective industry to build – and deliver ahead of the regulatory deadline - a user friendly tool. By delivering the directory early, we are enabling organisations to familiarise themselves with the new tool, as well as hopefully reminding any remaining UK institutions that receive SEPA payments, who are not currently involved, to get in touch and to participate."