SEPA Direct Debit Timings: D-1, Pre-notification, Returns and Refunds
When must a collection reach the debtor's bank? What happens when the due date falls on a Sunday? How long does a debtor have to claim a refund, and why is the answer different in B2B? The 2025 EPC rulebooks, quoted.
What are the SEPA Direct Debit timings?
Under the 2025 EPC rulebooks, a SEPA direct debit collection must reach the debtor's PSP at least one Inter-PSP Business Day before the due date (D-1), and that deadline applies to one-off, first and recurrent collections alike. The pre-notification must be sent to the debtor at the latest 14 calendar days before the due date unless another timeline is agreed, and a collection may not be presented earlier than 14 calendar days before the due date. Returns settle within five Inter-PSP Business Days under the Core scheme and three under B2B. A Core debtor may claim a no-questions-asked refund within eight weeks of the debit date; the B2B scheme provides no refund right for an authorised transaction. An Inter-PSP Business Day is a day on which TARGET is open, and TARGET closes only on weekends and six fixed days a year.
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Two kinds of business day, and everything depends on which one
Before any date calculation, one distinction has to be settled, because getting it wrong produces answers that are confident and wrong. The SEPA rulebooks count in two different units of time, and they are not interchangeable.
Inter-PSP Business Day - calculable
The rulebook defines it as “a day on which PSPs generally are open for inter-PSP business” and states that “the TARGET Days Calendar is used to identify Inter-PSP Business Days”. Because the TARGET closing days are published by the ECB, this day can be computed for any date, offline.
Banking Business Day - not calculable
The SEPA Credit Transfer glossary defines a Business Day as “a day on which PSPs in the relevant jurisdiction are generally open for business with customers”. It varies by country and, in practice, by bank. No public register lists it for the 36 SEPA countries.
The direct debit schemes run on the first: due dates, the D-1 deadline and return windows are all counted in Inter-PSP Business Days. The credit transfer scheme runs on the second - the SCT rulebook states that “the execution time cycle of a SEPA Credit Transfer defines the execution time cycle by reference to Banking Business Days, rather than to Calendar Days”.
TARGET closes on weekends and six days a year
- 1 January - New Year's Day
- Good Friday (Catholic/Protestant)
- Easter Monday (Catholic/Protestant)
- 1 May - Labour Day
- 25 December - Christmas Day
- 26 December
That is the whole list, published by the ECB in December 2000 and applicable “from 2002 until further notice”. There is no 15 August, no All Saints' Day, no national holiday: TARGET is a European system and ignores national calendars. Note the ECB's parenthesis too - “(Catholic/Protestant)” - which excludes Orthodox Easter, up to five weeks apart in some years. Greece and Cyprus observe it nationally; TARGET does not.
The practical consequence: never apply the TARGET calendar to a credit transfer in order to announce a settlement date. A bank in Frankfurt is closed on 3 October while TARGET is open. For a direct debit, TARGET is the right answer; for a credit transfer it tells you only that the interbank rail is open, not that your bank is.
The timings, Core and B2B side by side
Both direct debit schemes share the same presentation deadlines, then diverge on everything that happens after settlement. The differences are not cosmetic: the B2B scheme exists precisely because it removes the refund right.
| Rule | SDD Core | SDD B2B |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-notification to the debtor | At the latest 14 calendar days before the due date, unless another timeline is agreed | Same |
| Earliest presentation | Not earlier than 14 calendar days before the due date | Same (D-14 calendar days) |
| Receipt by the debtor's PSP | D-1 Inter-PSP Business Day, one-off and recurrent alike | D-1 Inter-PSP Business Day at the latest, for all collections |
| Settlement of returns | Five Inter-PSP Business Days | Three Inter-PSP Business Days |
| Refund of an authorised transaction | Eight weeks from the debit date, no questions asked | None - “Refunds are not provided for under the B2B Scheme” |
| Unauthorised or defective transaction | 13 months from the debit date (PSD) | 13 months from the debit date (PSD, articles 73 or 89) |
The five-versus-three days on returns is real, and so is the refund line. The B2B rulebook is explicit: “The Debtor has no right to obtain a refund for an authorised transaction under the Scheme.” A tool that displayed an eight-week refund window on a B2B mandate would be describing a right that does not exist.
What survives in B2B is the statutory route: for a defective or fraudulent transaction the debtor can still claim for 13 months after the debit date, under articles 73 or 89 of the Payment Services Directive. That is not the scheme's refund - it is a different claim, on different grounds, and it is not granted on a no-questions-asked basis.
Does the deadline depend on the sequence type?
It is a fair question, because for years it did. A first collection in a recurrent series - sequence type FRST - had to reach the debtor's bank several days earlier than a subsequent one. That distinction no longer exists, and the current rulebook settles it in a single sentence:
“The period between Due Date and the day on which the Debtor PSP must receive the Collection has to be at least 1 Inter-PSP Business Day (D-1) irrespective of whether the Collection is presented as an one-off or a recurrent Collection.”
The change is dated, and by the rulebook's own change log: it took effect “as of the effective date in November 2016 of the Rulebook version 9.0”, following approval by the EPC Plenary on 11 December 2014. The same entry records that using the sequence type ‘First’ for the first of a recurrent series is “no longer mandatory” - a first collection may be identified as RCUR like any other.
The B2B rulebook reaches the same result in different words: “D-1 Inter-PSP Business Day at the latest for all Collections.” So the answer is the same in both schemes - one deadline, whatever the sequence type. If your software still holds separate lead times for FRST and RCUR, the collections will still go through; you are simply presenting them earlier than the scheme requires.
A due date on a closed day is not an error
It is tempting to treat a due date falling on a Sunday, or on 1 May, as a file to reject. The rulebook does not forbid it. It does something more useful - it defines what happens:
“If the Due Date falls on a day which is not an Inter-PSP Business Day, then the Settlement Date will be the next Inter-PSP Business Day. If the Settlement Date falls on a day which is not a Banking Business Day for the Debtor PSP, then the debit date will be the next Banking Business Day.”
A validator that flags such a file as invalid therefore rejects something the scheme accepts. The useful output is not “this is wrong” but “here is when the money will actually move” - the shift forward, and by how much.
Note the second sentence, which chains the two kinds of day: settlement moves to the next Inter-PSP Business Day, and then the debit itself can move again, to the next day the debtor's own bank is open. The first shift is computable; the second is not, for the reason given above. An honest answer gives you the settlement date and stops there.
What no calculator can tell you
A date calculator that answers everything is a date calculator that is guessing. Three things genuinely cannot be derived from public sources, and naming them is better than papering over them:
Your bank's cut-off time
The rulebooks deliberately defer to the contract: an originator submits “in accordance with its Terms and Conditions”. Cut-offs vary by bank, by channel and by customer, and they live in agreements that are published nowhere. No tool can tell you whether a file submitted at 16:45 makes today's run.
National bank holidays
These are needed for any credit transfer execution date, since the SCT counts in Banking Business Days. There is no free, official, consolidated list covering the 36 SEPA countries - and the TARGET calendar is not a substitute, since it ignores national holidays by design.
How far ahead you may post-date
Presenting a collection no earlier than 14 calendar days before the due date is the scheme rule, but the maximum a given PSP will accept in its own systems is a matter for that PSP, not for the rulebook.
That is why our calculator marks these three as not checked instead of producing a number. A missing answer you can see is worth more than a confident one you cannot verify.
Work out your SEPA dates
Enter a due date and get the settlement date, the D-1 presentation deadline, the pre-notification date and the refund window, with the TARGET calendar applied. Everything runs in your browser: no file and no date is ever sent to a server.
Open the SEPA date calculatorOfficial sources
Every rule and every quotation on this page was read in the rulebook itself, not in a summary. The EPC rulebooks are free to download; the TARGET closing days come from the ECB. The links point to the publishers - we do not rehost the documents.
TARGET closing days: source European Central Bank. Reused under the ECB's terms, which require the information to appear accurately and the ECB to be cited as the source.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many days before the due date must a SEPA direct debit be presented?
The collection must reach the debtor's PSP at least one Inter-PSP Business Day before the due date (D-1), and it may not be presented earlier than 14 calendar days before the due date. The Core and the B2B rulebook apply the same D-1 deadline.
Is the deadline different for a first collection (FRST) and a recurrent one (RCUR)?
No. The Core rulebook states that the D-1 deadline applies “irrespective of whether the Collection is presented as an one-off or a recurrent Collection”. The older split between first and recurrent collections stopped applying in November 2016, with rulebook version 9.0, and using the sequence type ‘First’ is no longer mandatory.
What is an Inter-PSP Business Day?
A day on which PSPs are generally open for inter-PSP business. The rulebook identifies those days by the TARGET calendar, which is closed on weekends and on six fixed days a year: 1 January, Good Friday, Easter Monday, 1 May, 25 December and 26 December.
What happens if the due date falls on a weekend or a public holiday?
Nothing is rejected. The rulebook provides that if the due date is not an Inter-PSP Business Day, the settlement date becomes the next Inter-PSP Business Day. If that day is not a banking business day for the debtor's PSP, the actual debit moves again, to the next day that bank is open.
How long does a debtor have to request a refund?
Under the Core scheme, eight weeks from the debit date on a no-questions-asked basis, and 13 months for an unauthorised transaction. Under B2B there is no refund right for an authorised transaction; the 13-month route remains available for a defective or fraudulent transaction under the Payment Services Directive.
Why does the B2B scheme have no refund?
That is its purpose. Removing the eight-week refund gives the creditor certainty of funds, which is also why the debtor's bank is required to check the mandate with its customer before debiting. The trade-off is that the B2B scheme is only open to debtors who are not consumers.
When must the pre-notification be sent?
At the latest 14 calendar days before the due date, unless another timeline is agreed with the debtor. Both schemes use the same wording. The pre-notification can be an invoice, a payment schedule or any advance notice stating the amount and the date.
How long do returns take to settle?
Five Inter-PSP Business Days after settlement under the Core scheme, three under B2B. These are the latest dates for settlement of the returns, counted in Inter-PSP Business Days and not in calendar days.
Can a tool tell me whether my file will make today's cut-off?
No, and any tool that claims otherwise is guessing. Cut-off times are set by each PSP in its own terms and conditions; they appear neither in the rulebooks nor in any public register. The rulebooks explicitly defer to the contract between the creditor and its PSP.