Technical Specifications

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SEPA Plus TXT Files

– Version 3

Technical Specifications

This document describes the technical matters of the SEPA ROUTING TXT file, included in the SEPA Plus product. The file is used by financial institutions to find for a beneficiary bank the available SEPA payment channels. For the IBAN Plus files please read the IBAN Plus Technical Specifications.

Update date: 12 November 2012

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Preface

Packaging

The SEPA Plus product contains the files that are part of the IBAN Plus product and the file SEPA ROUTING TXT. For the technical details of IBAN Plus files please read the IBAN Plus TXT Files technical specifications. This document describes the SEPA ROUTING file. The SEPA ROUTING file is also available as part of the Payment Plus product package. Purpose

The SEPA ROUTING file contains data that is needed to send SEPA payments to the right SEPA-ready destination using SEPA-ready channels. The SEPA ROUTING file includes data that are used by financial institutions to

 Look-up a financial institution’s available SEPA channels (ACHes or CSMs) and their intermediaries in case they are indirect participants

 Choose the most convenient channel for the payment

The SEPA ROUTING file contains a bank’s membership of SEPA compliant Clearing and Settlement Mechanism (CSM), operational readiness for the SEPA schemes and any intermediary institutions.

The SEPA ROUTING file is intended for use with the IBAN Plus file. Data sources

The data is obtained from, cross-referenced with and validated against the following sources:  ISO 9362 BIC Directory.

 Financial institutions operationally ready for SEPA – collected via SEPA PAKs (online screens).

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1 General product information

1.1 SEPA Plus

The product SEPA Plus is one of the products of SWIFTRef. The SEPA Plus product includes a set of TXT files. A subset of the files is separately available as the IBAN Plus product. The files are compressed in a .zip package. The zip package is updated and published monthly.

1.2 File format

The files are structured TXT files, with:  Line separator: CR/LF

 Field separator: Tab character  File extension: .txt

The files are encoded in the UFD8 format. The characters used within the files belong to the SWIFT X character set (see Appendix).

1.3 File names

The downloadable SEPA Plus zip package contains the following files:

Latest file versions Available

SEPAROUTING_V3_FULL_YYYYMMDD.txt Jan 2013 SEPAROUTING _V3_DELTA_YYYYMMDD.txt Feb 2013 IBANPLUS_V3_FULL_YYYYMMDD.txt Jan 2013 IBANPLUS_V3_DELTA_YYYYMMDD.txt Feb 2013

IBANSTRUCTURE_FULL_YYYYMMDD.txt Currently

The FULL file contains the full set of data. It can be used to re-initialise, re-build the target data base.

The DELTA file only contains the changes (additions, deletions and modifications) relative to the previous release. It is used to update the target data base.

There is no DELTA version of the IBAN STRUCTURE file.

The structure and content of the SEPA ROUTING files are explained in further sections in this document. The IBAN PLUS and the IBAN STRUCTURE files are described in the IBAN Plus TXT

Files technical specifications document.

The md5sum file (not shown in table above) contains the digest for file integrity verification. The Release Notes file (optional, not shown in table above) contains a brief description of the latest changes (see section Release Notes).

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1.4 Previous file versions

The files listed in the previous section are the latest version files included in the zip package. If previous versions of files exist, they also might be included in the downloadable zip package. Currently the following previous version files also are included in the SEPA Plus package and will be removed in the future:

Previous version files Provided until

SEPAROUTING_V2_FULL_YYYYMMDD.txt 31 Dec 2013 SEPAROUTING_V2_DELTA_YYYYMMDD.txt 31 Dec 2013 IBANPLUS_V2_FULL_YYYYMMDD.txt 31 Dec 2013 IBANPLUS_V2_DELTA_YYYYMMDD.txt 31 Dec 2013 IBANPLUS_FULL_YYYYMMDD.txt 31 Jun 2013 IBANPLUS_DELTA_YYYYMMDD.txt 31 Jun 2013

Customers are urged to migrate from the previous versions to the latest version as soon as possible and in any case before the “Included until” date.

The SEPA Routing Directory is a predecessor of the new SEPA ROUTING file and will be phased out in December 2013. Many of the SEPA Routing Directory fields are present in the SEPA ROUTING file. For a detailed mapping of the fields between the old SEPA Routing Directory and the new SEPA ROUTING TXT file please read the SWIFT Directories File

Upgrades technical specifications.

1.5 Downloading the files

The IBAN Plus zip package can be downloaded manually or automatically from http://www.swiftref.com/ by authorised users only using a supplied access key. For the automation option please ask for the document BIC Download Automation Interface

Specification.

Customers connected to the SWIFT Network also can obtain the files securely and automatically via FileAct. Please read the Implementation Guidelines for Directories Distribution over FileAct for more information. Please contact us at [email protected] to order the FileAct delivery option. The downloadable zip packages are published at the “activation dates” listed in the table on

http://www.swift.com/solutions/messaging/information_products/bic_directory_publication_sched ule.page.

Please unzip the zip files on reception.

1.6 Importing the files

The files in SEPA Plus can be imported into:

 Your target application and data bases. The TXT files need to be translated into the EBCEDIC format for import into IBM systems.

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 Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access – for desktop consultation. Please make sure to format the Excel sheet as text before importing the file in order to preserve leading zeros (“0”).

1.7 Future file changes

The structure of the data files can exceptionally evolve with time, for example because new data must be added in the form of new columns in order to support a new regulation. SWIFT will take care to limit the number of changes to a minimum. In case SWIFT changes a file it will keep providing the old file for 18 months. The files and the relevant technical specifications will be identified by a version number.

1.8 Release notes

Customers are notified on important changes to the files in the zip packages through the Release Notes. Release Notes are simple TXT files included in the downloadable zip packages and contain a brief description of a change. Examples are: a new version of a file due to a structure change, change to the meaning of the data in a file, phase-out of an old version of a file. If a Release Note is present in the zip package please read it carefully and take any actions if required.

1.9 Support

Customers subscribed to the SEPA Plus can receive support on the data content by sending an email to the SWIFTRef data team at [email protected]. Customers who want to provide or update their own data in the products also can contact the data team. Support also can be asked via [email protected].

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2 SEPA ROUTING file

The SEPA ROUTING file contains SEPA reachability channels for the financial institutions in SEPA countries

2.1 Field definitions

The table below contains the definitions of the fields (columns) in the SEPA ROUTING file – both the full and the delta file.

Field name Data type Max length Always present Description

MODIFICATION FLAG alpha 1 yes Modification flag of type ADM, in DELTA files:

 A (addition)

 M (modification)

 D (deletion) In FULL files:

 A (addition) RECORD KEY

alpha-numeric

12 yes The unique key of the record in the file.

BIC alpha-numeric

11 yes The BIC of the beneficiary financial institution. In case a BIC8 was issued it is padded with “XXX”.

INSTITUTION NAME any type 105 yes Institution name of the BENEFICIARY BIC.

CITY any type 35 no City name of the Beneficiary BIC.

ISO COUNTRY CODE alpha 2 yes The ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of the country of the Beneficiary BIC (see CCH file).

SCHEME alpha 8 yes The SEPA scheme for which this BIC can be reached through the payments channel. Is one off:

- “SCT” - “SDD B2B” - “SDD CORE”

ADHERENCE BIC alpha-numeric

11 no The BIC published in the EPC Adherence Register under which this institution or branch registered with the EPC for the scheme. If the BIC is not present then either:

 institution did not register

 institution will register soon

 the BIC is not known

Note that occasionally the ADHERENCE BIC might be an invalid BIC, for example if the institution changed its BIC and the EPC register has not been updated. ADHERENCE START DATE date YYYYM MDD

8 no The date from which, according to the EPC Adherence Register, the institution will be ready for operating the scheme.

ADHERENCE STOP DATE

date YYYYM

MDD

8 no The date after which, according to the EPC Adherence Register, the institution will cease the scheme operations.

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PAYMENT CHANNEL ID

alpha-numeric

11 yes Identification of the clearing channel through which the beneficiary institution can receive payment instructions according to the scheme.

For example: "EBAS" for EBA Clearing STEP2 SEPA, "VOCA" for VOCA / LINK United Kingdom (see Appendix C for a complete list of structured clearing & settlement service codes).

PREFERRED CHANNEL FLAG

alpha 1 no This flag indicates if the payment channel is the preferred payment channel of the beneficiary institution for receiving payment:

 P if preferred

REACHABILITY alpha 1 no This field indicates the beneficiary institution's reachability through the payment channel:

 D if direct

 I if indirect

If "I" (Indirect), the field "INTERMEDIARY

INSTITUTION BIC" identifies the institution that will route the payment.

INTERMEDIARY INSTITUTION BIC

alpha-numeric

11 no BIC of the intermediary institution in case reachability of the institution in payment channel is "I" (Indirect). In case a BIC8 was issued it is padded with “XXX”. START DATE date

YYYY MMDD

8 no The date from which the institution becomes reachable via this payment channel.

STOP DATE date YYYY MMDD

8 no The date after which the institution is no longer reachable via this payment channel.

AOS alpha 4 No Indicates membership of a SEPA Additional Optional Service.

See Appendix E.

FIELD A

alpha-numeric

35 no This field is reserved for future use. In case values will be populated, the file structure and the field name will not change.

FIELD B

alpha-numeric

70 no This field is reserved for future use. In case values will be populated, the file structure and the field name will not change.

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Appendix A – Character Set

The files only contain characters from the SWIFT X character set. SWIFT X character set

Type Allowed characters

Alphabetical characters A to Z (upper case) a to z (lower case)

Numeric characters 0 to 9

Special characters / - ? : ( ) . , ' + CrLf SPACE Transliteration of special characters that do not fit withing the SWIFT X character set:

@ (AT)

“ (double quote) ‘ (single quote)

Note: The previous versions of the IBAN PLUS TXT file and the other files included in the package were using the SWIFT Z character set. This has now been restricted to the SWIFT X character set. The characters that will not appear anymore in the files are:

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Appendix B – Fields and Flags

B.1 Modification Flag

The MODIFICATION FLAG field reflects the update status of a specific record compared to the previous issue.

Value MODIFICATION FLAG description

A Added since last issue.

The record was not present in the previous issue and is therefore new in the current issue. In the FULL file all records have the MODIFICATION FLAG set to A. This is because when a FULL file is being imported all records need to be added to the target data base.

In the DELTA file the new records are marked with A. D Deleted since last issue.

In the FULL file the record has been removed.

In the DELTA file the record is still present but marked with D. It will not appear in the next issue of the DELTA file.

M Modified since last issue.

The record does not contain the same information as in the previous issue.

In the FULL file the modified records have the MODIFICATION FLAG set to A. This is because when a FULL file is being imported all records need to be added to the target data base.

In the DELTA file the modified records have the MODIFICATION FLAG set to M.

B.2 Record keys

The RECORD KEY field contains the unique identifier of a particular record. The RECORD KEYs are unique.

If information in a record has changed then the record appears with modification flag M. If the RECORD KEY itself changes, then the record in the next DELTA file will not have a modification flag M. Instead, the record will appear twice: once with the old information

(MODIFICATION FLAG set to D), and once with the new information (MODIFICATION FLAG set to A). The two records will have different RECORD KEYs.

B.3 Date fields

Date fields have a length of 8 characters, structured in the format YYYYMMDD, where:  YYYY = 4 digits year

 MM = 2 digits month  DD = 2 digits day

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Appendix C – Payment Channel List

The table below lists the payment channels (CSMs or ACHes) in SEPA.

Payment Channel ID Description

BBSN BBS (NICS) Norway BGCS BGC Clearing Sweden BSVB Bankservice Bulgaria CECB CEC/UCV Belgium DBSC

RPSE Retail Payment System SEPA Clearing - Deutsche Bundesbank Germany

DIAS DIAS Greece

EBAS EBA Clearing STEP2 SEPA

EQNS EQUENS (Interpay Netherlands & TAI Germany) EUGI Eurogiro Network A/S

GIRO GIRO Hungary IBPA Iberpay (SNCE) Spain KIRP KIR Poland

PBSD PBS Denmark SCTI ICBPI-ICCREA Italy SIAS SIA / SSB Italy SIBS SIBS Portugal

SICS euroSIC (Swiss Interbank Clearing) Switzerland STET STET (CORE) France

STPA STEP.AT Austria

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Appendix D - Cross Referencing

The data records in the SEPA ROUTING file are cross-referenced with:  IBAN PLUS file

 COUNTRY CODE file

The data fields used for cross-referencing are described in the following sections.

D.1 BIC field

The IBAN BIC field and ROUTING BIC field in IBAN PLUS file correspond to the BIC field in the SEPA ROUTING file. Through this correspondence a beneficiary bank’s SEPA routing channels (ACH, scheme, Intermediary bank) can be found from the IBAN and the BIC issued by the bank. First the IBAN BIC should be used to look-up the channel, if none found, use the ROUTING BIC. IBAN PLUS file

RECORD KEY IBAN CC IBAN NATIONAL ID IBAN BIC ROUTING BIC

IB00000000P6 AT 32000 RLNWATWWXXX RLNWATWWXXX

IB0000002P2V ES 31710275 CXAVESB1XXX BCOEESMMXXX

SEPA ROUTING file

RECORD KEY CC BIC SCHEME PAYMENT CHANNEL ID

SP000000000A AT RLNWATWWXXX SCT EBAS

SP000000000B AT RLNWATWWXXX SDD CORE EBAS

SP0000000F57 ES BCOEESMMXXX SCT IBPA

SP0000000F58 ES BCOEESMMXXX SCT EBAS

D.2 COUNTRY CODE field

The ISO COUNTRY CODE field in SEPA ROUTING file corresponds to the COUNTRY CODE field in the COUNTRY CODE file, the CURRENCY CODE file, the HOLIDAY file and the TIMEZONE file, included in the Bank Directory Plus product.

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Appendix E– SEPA Additional Optional Services

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Legal Notices

Copyright

You may copy this publication within your organisation. Any such copy must include these legal notices.

Confidentiality

This publication contains SWIFT or third-party confidential information. Do not disclose this publication outside your organisation without the prior written consent of SWIFT.

Disclaimer

The information in this publication may change from time to time. You must always refer to the latest available version on www.swiftref.com.

Translations

The English version of SWIFT documentation is the only official and binding version.

Trademarks

SWIFT is the trade name of S.W.I.F.T. SCRL. The following are registered trademarks of SWIFT: SWIFT, the SWIFT logo, the Standards Forum logo, 3SKey, Innotribe, Sibos, SWIFTNet, SWIFTReady, and Accord. Other product, service, or company names in this publication are trade names, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Technical Specifications

SEPA Plus TXT Files

– Version 3