SEPA

The Single Euro Payments Area. Not a company or a network, but a set of scheme rulebooks maintained by the European Payments Council that standardise how euro payments are formatted, priced and settled between the institutions that adhere to them.

Four schemes: SEPA Credit Transfer, SEPA Instant Credit Transfer, SEPA Direct Debit Core and SEPA Direct Debit B2B. Its jurisdictional scope covers the European Union, the wider European Economic Area, and additional countries and territories including the United Kingdom and Switzerland (European Payments Council, EPC409-09 v8.0, checked September 2026).

Two properties matter commercially. Nothing is deducted in transit, because there are no correspondent banks in the path, so the amount sent is the amount credited. And a cross-border euro transfer inside the area must be priced the same as an equivalent domestic one.

SEPA is closed. An account outside its scope cannot receive a SEPA credit transfer at any price, which is what reachability describes.