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The European Payments Council (EPC) has launched a consultation on its proposed optional Euro One-Leg Out Credit Transfer Arrangement Rulebook, which sets rules for credit transfers between a eurozone party and a non-eurozone one.
The Euro One-Leg Out Credit Transfer (Euro OCT) is an international euro credit transfer made between a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) payment provider and a financial institution licensed only in a non-SEPA country.
The arrangement discusses rules for both incoming and outgoing Euro OCTs, when the SEPA-based payments firm sends and accepts payment from a non-SEPA-based firm.
The EPC stresses that a “successful launch and operation of the arrangement would rely on a sufficient number of adhering SEPA-based PSPs in the different roles of the arrangement”.
The arrangement provides a set of rules, practices and standards with which eurozone payment firms should comply. It allows payment service providers (PSPs) to offer account-to-account based payment solutions, and to offer their payees and payers a faster execution of the transaction.
It also provides more upfront transparency on costs and on the parties involved, and a better payment status traceability via Unique End-to-End Transaction Reference (UETR).
Under the Standard Euro OCT rules, payment firms should make the funds available as soon as possible, for instance at the next possible clearing cycle, or according to the arrangements agreed with the next actor in the international payment chain.
When the payer requests instant processing, the arrangement under the Instant Euro OLO Credit Transfer (Inst Euro OCT) establishes the maximum execution timelines and deadlines for such instant payments.
It also sets rules for related exception handling exclusively for the SEPA Leg, and establishes that the maximum amount a payer can transfer via a single Inst Euro OCT instruction is €100,000. This is the same as a standard SEPA instant payment.
The arrangement would be optional and would apply only to the SEPA Leg of an instant transaction.
The consultation opened on January 18 and will be running until April 17. The EPC will consider the next steps in the second quarter of the year.
“An important element for the EPC to pursue with the launch of this arrangement or not, is the scale of interest among SEPA payment scheme participants and other payment stakeholders in SEPA for this arrangement,” the council said.
