EU payments guide

Supported countries

Alongside the UK, we support Payments v3 in:

• Austria
• Belgium
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Ireland
• Italy
• Lithuania
• the Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Spain

Payouts are available in GBP and EUR. For more detailed information on product coverage, contact us.

If you have an account, go to Console to see more detailed information about providers by country.

Introduction to payments schemes

Payment schemes allow you to transfer money digitally from account to account.

When you make an account-to-account transfer within the UK via TrueLayer, the money moves over the Faster Payments scheme. These payments are free, and the money usually arrives in your beneficiary's account within a few seconds (though it can take up to 2 hours).

When you make a payment in Europe via TrueLayer, it uses one of two schemes:

• SEPA Instant
• SEPA Credit

Introduced in 2017, SEPA Instant enables faster and easier cross-border payments by giving users a way to transfer money in real time.

However, SEPA Instant is optional. This means EU banks don’t have to provide it, and little more than half currently do. However, this number is increasing gradually, because regulatory change requires all banks that offer regular credit transfers to offer instant transfers too.

Below is a table explaining the differences between payments rails.

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SEPA Instant availability

If you have an account on Console, see our providers table for details on which providers support SEPA Instant.

Both SEPA Instant and SEPA Credit use the ISO 20022 standard for messaging, and are regulated by the European Central Bank.

Be aware that many people in Europe are unfamiliar with the terms SEPA Credit and SEPA Instant. We recommend not using these terms when you design your checkout.

SEPA Instant fees

When there is a fee for SEPA Instant payments, it is normally the end user who pays them. So it's important to communicate potential fees clearly and transparently to your users.

Below is a guide to typical flat fee amounts by country. Be aware that fees will differ from bank to bank, and some banks charge a percentage-based fee which may be much higher.

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Be aware of IBAN discrimination

Sometimes, fees can change depending on which IBAN you receive payments with. Bypass this by using a TrueLayer merchant account.

Choosing a payments rail

If you want to use a specific rail for a payment:

• set provider_selection to user_selected and use filters in the scheme_selection field
• set provider_selection to preselected and set the scheme.id to:

Payments over €100,000 cannot be made through SEPA Instant. They are automatically routed through SEPA Credit.

Use the payment_creditable webhook

If you accept payments with SEPA Credit, we recommend that you enable the creditable_at webhook. This webhook informs you when you can consider a payment complete, and provide services, before the payment actually settles.

The payment_creditable webhook supports variety of behaviours, including time-bound and risk-assessed behaviours.

Introduction to IBANs

An IBAN, or International Bank Account Number, is required by some banks in the EU to create a payment. You can usually find your IBAN on your bank statement or by logging into your bank's online banking/app.

An IBAN consists of three parts:

• a country code (eg FR, DE)
• a control key
• a BBAN

IBANs in EU payment requests

During provider selection, a user who makes a payment in Europe will often be asked to submit their IBAN alongside the provider they want to pay with.

These are the countries enabled by TrueLayer that require the person making the payment to submit their IBAN:

• Austria
• Belgium
• Germany
• Italy
• Lithuania
• Norway
• Poland

If you don't know your user's IBAN, they will be asked to add it manually during checkout so that they can safely connect their bank and proceed with the payment.

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We recommend that you store your user's IBAN, and supply it for them within the provider_selection.remitter parameter if they pay again. This significantly improves the user experience.

TrueLayer's user interfaces for web and mobile apps automatically handle additional requirements like this for banks and countries across Europe.