Business On Line SEPA Instant and Verification of Payee (VOP)

SEPA Instant enables funds to be transferred from one payment account to another, in euro, within 10 seconds, 24 hours a day, any day of the year including bank holidays and weekends.

VOP is a new security step in the payment process for all SEPA payments and SEPA Instant payments. VOP will check with the receiving bank that the name you enter matches the name of the person or business associated with the IBAN.

You will be able to send SEPA Instant payments and complete VOP checks on payments by 9 October 2025.

Please check this page for future updates on SEPA Instant and VOP for Business On Line.

SEPA Instant bulk payments

SEPA Instant payments (also called SEPA Instant Credit Transfers) allow you to send money in euro from one payment account to another within 10 seconds of the time your bulk file is received and each payment is processed by your bank. This service is available 24 hours a day, every day of the year. This includes weekends and bank holidays.

You have the option to continue to send your existing bulk PAIN.001 payment files through BOL File Gateway and BOL Payments Plus in the standard SEPA format with no changes required.

Alternatively, you can send your files as SEPA Instant payments. When you submit a SEPA Instant bulk payment, we will notify you of the success or failure of each SEPA Instant payment in an enhanced PAIN.002 report. Please see the “Success or failure of SEPA Instant payments” section below.

 

Using SEPA Instant for bulk payments

There are some important things you should know, if you want to send a SEPA Instant bulk payment file. These are outlined below. If you use a third party to create your file, you may need to contact them to check if they support the SEPA Instant format for bulk files.

 

Important things to know about SEPA Instant bulk payments

General Information

  • Each SEPA Instant payment in a file will show as an individual debit on your statement. They can be identified by the letters “IP” in the debit narrative.
  • You cannot future-date a SEPA Instant bulk file. The date of the file must match the date on which you authorise it. If it does not match your file will be rejected. However, you can create a file with a date in the future but you must ensure that the date you authorise the file is equal to the date on the file. If the file is received by us with a date in the past or a date in the future it will be rejected.
  • The maximum number of payments contained within a SEPA Instant file per day is 100. SEPA Instant files are limited to one authorised file a day per Originator Identifier Number (OIN), irrespective of the number of payments within the file.

Technical Information

  • SEPA Instant Credit Transfer PAIN.001.001.09 XML File Structure format must be used, if you are sending bulk Instant payments.
  • The Local Instrument tag for each batch of payments within your file must be populated with “INST”. All payments within a SEPA Instant bulk file must be SEPA Instant payments.
  • The Instruction ID tag for each payment in the file is mandatory and the detail in this tag must be unique for each payment. If the Instruction ID is not unique, the payment will fail for duplication and will be rejected.

 

 

Set optional limits for SEPA Instant for bulk payments

To set SEPA Instant limits for bulk payments, the Administrator(s) should log on to the ‘Admin dashboard’.

The daily limit is valid from midnight to midnight seven days a week and can be updated at any time in the day with immediate effect.

Remember: SEPA Instant limits for bulk payments are optional and apply to SEPA Instant payments only.

 

SEPA Instant features and benefits

SEPA Instant features Key benefit
Faster settlement time
If successful, credits the payee/beneficiary within 10 seconds of the payment being processed.
24/7 availability
Available 24/7, any day of the year (subject to maintenance windows, which we will tell you about before they happen).
Improved cut-off times
Cut-off times do not apply to SEPA Instant payments for Business On Line, Business On Line File Gateway/Payments Plus.
Consistent charges
There are no additional fees to use SEPA Instant over a standard SEPA payment. SEPA Instant will be displayed as a separate line item in your quarterly statement.
Unique payment limits
Administrator(s) can set additional ‘daily’ or ‘per transaction’ payment limits specific for each SEPA Instant OIN.

 

Success or failure of SEPA Instant payments

Under the SEPA Instant Credit Transfers regulation 2024, we are obliged to notify you of the success or failure of each SEPA Instant payment. We will do this in an enhanced PAIN.002 report.

About PAIN.002 reports

The PAIN.002 report is available on Business On Line File Gateway, to view and download, in both a HTML and XML version.

The PAIN.002 report will be available within one minute of the last payment within the file being processed.

You can enable email notifications of newly available PAIN.002 reports. Just log onto BOL File Gateway and check your settings in the Notifications tab.

The summary PAIN.002 report will now contain a list of all the transactions in the file. Indicating whether each payment was successfully processed or failed. This is different from existing standard SEPA PAIN.002 reports which contain details of failed payments only.

In the case of a rejection, the report will provide the reject reason code and reject description details.

Error reports and SEPA Instant file-level rejection messages are available in the BOL Payments Plus “Report” tab. They will not be sent by email.

Information about the contents of new documents for SEPA Instant for bulk payments are outlined in the table below.

Description What it contains
SEPA Credit Transfers Originators’ Guide
This describes the new requirements for you to make SEPA Instant payments using your bulk files.
SEPA Instant Credit Transfer PAIN.001.001.09 XML File Structure PDF
This format should be used, if you want to send SEPA Instant payments in bulk.
SEPA Instant Credit Transfer PAIN.002.001.10 Unpaid XML File Structure PDF
This format describes the report used to view the status of each payment you sent within the SEPA Instant bulk payments file. This report contains both successful and rejected SEPA Instant payments. It also includes additional rejection error codes specifically for SEPA Instant.

 

SEPA Instant bulk payment FAQs

  • What is SEPA?

    SEPA is the Single European Payments Area. It has a number of payment schemes such as SEPA credit transfers (non-urgent), SEPA Instant payments and SEPA direct debits. They are all governed by individual SEPA Scheme rules, run by the European Payment Council (EPC). All payment service providers/banks that sign up to the schemes must follow these rules.

  • What is a SEPA Instant payment?

    SEPA Instant payments (also called SEPA Instant Credit Transfers) allow you to send money in euro from one payment account to another within 10 seconds of the time your bulk file is received and each payment is processed by your bank. This service is available 24 hours a day, every day of the year. This includes weekends and bank holidays. There are a few exceptions to this. For example, times when the system might be unavailable due to planned maintenance. We will let you know about these in advance.

    You have the option to continue to send your existing bulk PAIN.001 payment files through BOL File Gateway and BOL Payments Plus in the standard SEPA format with no changes required.

    Alternatively, you can send your files as SEPA Instant payments. Once enabled, we will notify you of the success or failure of each SEPA Instant payment in an enhanced PAIN.002 report.

    You have been able to receive SEPA Instant payments since January 2025. You will be able to send SEPA Instant payments by 9 October 2025.

  • What is the SEPA Zone?

    The SEPA Zone is what the EPC calls the geographical area where its SEPA schemes operate.

  • Which banks/payment service providers will offer SEPA Instant?

    In 2025, only countries in the EU that have the euro as their main currency are mandated to receive SEPA Instant payments (from Jan 2025) and mandated to send out SEPA Instant payments (by 9 October 2025). Payment service providers including banks in other countries within the SEPA Zone can voluntarily join the scheme. Countries in EU/EEA where the euro is not their main currency, will be mandated to receive SEPA Instant payments from Jan 2027 and to send SEPA Instant payments from July 2027. Non-EEA countries in the SEPA Zone are not mandated to send or receive SEPA Instant payments.

  • What is the main difference between SEPA Instant payments and SEPA payments?

    SEPA payments: payments can take between one and two business days to reach the payee/beneficiary payment service provider/bank.

    SEPA Instant payments: payments, if successful, are credited to the payee/beneficiary within 10 seconds of the payment being made, 24/7, any day of the year.

    Customers will receive a report letting them know if their SEPA Instant payment has been successfully processed or if it has been rejected. We will do this by using an enhanced PAIN.002 report. The PAIN.002 report is available on Business On Line File Gateway, to view and download, in both a HTML and XML version. If a payment is rejected, the report will say why the SEPA Instant payment was rejected.

  • Are there any additional fees for using SEPA Instant?

    There are no additional fees to use SEPA Instant over a standard SEPA payment. SEPA Instant will be displayed as a separate line item in your quarterly statement.

  • Do I need to register for SEPA Instant bulk payments?

    No. If you already submit Standard SEPA bulk payment files you will be able to submit SEPA Instant bulk payment files by updating your file specification to the SEPA Instant compliant file specification.

  • Can I opt out of SEPA Instant?

    You can choose whether to make a payment using SEPA Instant or standard SEPA payments.

    You can continue to send your existing bulk PAIN.001 payment files through BOL File Gateway and BOL Payments Plus in the standard SEPA format with no changes required.

    If you choose SEPA Instant, you will be able to make a payment if the payee/beneficiary payment service provider/bank is reachable for SEPA Instant payments.

  • Where and when can I make SEPA Instant payments?

    You can make SEPA Instant payments on Business On Line or submit SEPA Instant payments in a bulk file using BOL File Gateway and Payments Plus (except during scheduled maintenance periods, which we’ll tell you about in advance):

    • Business On Line (BOL): at any time. Cut-off times do not apply.
    • BOL Payments Plus/BOL File Gateway: at any time. Cut-off times do not apply.
  • When can I receive SEPA Instant payments into my account?

    Since 9 January 2025, you’ve been able to receive SEPA Instant payments into your payment accounts (for example, your current account) 24 hours a day, any day of the year. Accounts that cannot receive SEPA Instant payments include loans, mortgages, certain deposit accounts, credit card accounts and Global Market accounts.

  • Can I send SEPA Instant payments in bulk?

    Yes. You can send a SEPA Instant bulk payment through BOL File Gateway and Payments Plus.

  • Can I set SEPA Instant bulk payment limits?

    Yes. Administrators are able to set optional limits for SEPA Instant bulk payments. To set SEPA Instant limits for bulk payments, the administrator should log on to the ‘Admin dashboard’. You can set limits as either a ‘Daily’ limit (maximum value of SEPA Instant payments that can be sent for that OIN in a day) or a ‘Per Transaction’ limit (maximum value of a single SEPA Instant payment contained in a file).

    Note that the existing agreed limit for each OIN applies, regardless of the use of optional SEPA Instant limits. The daily limit is valid from midnight to midnight seven days a week and can be updated at any time in the day with immediate effect.

    Remember: SEPA Instant limits for bulk payments are optional and apply to SEPA Instant Payments only.

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