General information

1. Operation

Bank transfers are the most common method of payment for business transactions. They involve the direct transfer of funds from one account (bank or payment account) to another, without using any additional medium, such as a card.

The individual or legal entity requesting the transfer is called the payer (or sender), and the one receiving the money is the payee. Unlike a card payment or a SEPA direct debit, only the sender themselves can initiate a wire transfer. To do so, they log in to their bank’s online banking portal, enter the beneficiary’s bank details (IBAN + BIC + account holder’s name), and then specify an amount and a transfer reference.

Some important information:

• The processing time for a standard transfer with CentralPay is 4 to 24 business hours (compared to 24 to 48 business hours at most traditional banks). Starting in October 2024, it will also be possible to receive instant transfers (processed in <5 seconds).
• The transfer does not pose a significant financial risk to the receiving merchant, since the sender undergoes strong authentication with their bank and therefore cannot dispute the transaction
• Issuing banks set a settlement limit for wire transfers that is significantly higher than the limit applied to SEPA direct debit transactions or card payments
• Depending on the features offered by their bank, the sender can set up a recurring transfer or a deferred transfer

2. Accepted Network Types

There are two types of bank transfers:

• SEPA transfers (or SEPA Credit Transfers): Used for transactions in euros between two member countries of the SEPA area (= 27 European Union countries + the United Kingdom, Monaco, Andorra, the Vatican, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland, and San Marino)
• International wire transfers: Used for international transactions in euros or other currencies via the SWIFT network

The fees for SEPA networks are very favorable (just a few tenths of a cent, compared to several tens of euros for SWIFT). SWIFT, however, offers several options for paying these fees: they can be borne by the sender, the recipient, or shared between the two.

CentralPay is accessible to all banks in the European Economic Area that use the SEPA networks (via STEP2 for SCT/SDD, as well as TIPS and RT1 for “Instant SCT”). Only transfers made through international networks or in currencies other than the euro are not currently accepted (via the SWIFT network, for example).