EPC Instant Credit Transfer Scheme Selector: SCT Inst or OCT Inst?

ByRegReportingDesk

On 11 September 2026 the European Payments Council (EPC) published a small web tool with an outsized job: the Instant Credit Transfer Scheme Selector. It addresses an operational classification question for instant-payment design: does the use case fall under the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme, the One-Leg Out Instant Credit Transfer (OCT Inst) scheme, or outside both EPC instant schemes? The schemes have separate rulebooks and separate participation and reachability arrangements, so the selected scheme must be consistent with the participants and route used.

The Selector makes the boundary between the two EPC instant schemes explicit, using three parameters that a payments product owner can read off a use case: the currency the payer wants to send, the currency the payee must receive, and where the sending and receiving institutions are based relative to SEPA. It is not a regulation and changes no obligation. Get the geography wrong, in particular, and you build a flow the SCT Inst rulebook will not carry.

Related reading: our guide to the SEPA Instant Payments Regulation.

Two instant schemes, one routing question

Since November 2025, the EPC has published an infographic and a detailed ‘Key Differences’ document comparing the current SCT Inst and OCT Inst rulebooks. The Selector walks the user through a series of transaction parameters and returns the applicable EPC instant credit transfer scheme for the scenario described.

Read the tool for what it is. It is a decision aid. It does not touch a payment, screen a party, or confirm that your institution has adhered to the scheme it names. When the Selector says a use case is an SCT Inst case, it is telling you which rulebook governs the transfer and which reachability you need, not that the transfer has been executed correctly. The execution, the value dating, and the screening all still sit with your own systems and your scheme participation.

Why does a tool for this classification question matter? Because the choice is not always obvious from the customer’s point of view. A payer instructing an instant euro transfer to a beneficiary abroad may assume one product covers it end to end. In scheme terms, where one financial institution is outside SEPA, SCT Inst is out of scope and OCT Inst can apply if at least one leg is denominated in euro. OCT Inst can also apply to qualifying euro/non-euro cross-currency flows where both financial institutions are within SEPA. If neither leg is denominated in euro, the flow is outside both EPC instant schemes. The Selector exists precisely for the cases where PSPs and payment service users are unsure which of the two schemes applies.

Key dates behind the two instant schemes

The Selector is new, but the schemes and the law around them arrived over several years. The obligation to offer instant credit transfers and the associated Article 5a(8) deadlines apply to PSPs referred to in Article 5a(1): PSPs that offer their PSUs a payment service of sending and receiving credit transfers. The operative dates are:

  • 21 November 2017: the SCT Inst scheme goes live under the first SCT Inst rulebook.
  • 28 November 2023: the OCT Inst scheme goes live, standardising the euro leg of instant transfers that cross the edge of SEPA.
  • 9 January 2025: euro-area PSPs other than electronic money institutions and payment institutions covered by the Article 5a(8) exception had to be able to receive instant credit transfers in euro, and the charge-parity rule applied to euro-area PSPs from the same date. Euro-area electronic money institutions and payment institutions have until 9 April 2027 to offer both receiving and sending.
  • 9 October 2025: euro-area PSPs other than electronic money institutions and payment institutions covered by the Article 5a(8) exception had to be able to send instant credit transfers in euro. Euro-area electronic money institutions and payment institutions have until 9 April 2027.
  • 9 April 2027: euro-area electronic money institutions and payment institutions must offer both sending and receiving of instant credit transfers in euro.
  • 9 January 2027 and 9 July 2027: PSPs in non-euro Member States generally must be able to receive, then send, instant credit transfers in euro. Non-euro electronic money institutions and payment institutions have until 9 April 2027 to receive and 9 July 2027 to send. A limited derogation can run until 9 June 2028 for sending instant euro transfers from accounts denominated in the Member State’s national currency where the statutory conditions are met.
  • 11 September 2026: the EPC publishes the Instant Credit Transfer Scheme Selector.

Several dates in that list are still ahead: 9 January 2027, 9 April 2027 and 9 July 2027, with the limited national-currency-account derogation potentially running until 9 June 2028.

SCT Inst: euro at both ends, both PSPs inside SEPA

The SCT Inst scheme lets a PSP based in SEPA offer a SEPA-wide, euro end-to-end instant credit transfer to payment service users within SEPA. The payer instructs its PSP, itself based in SEPA, to move an amount in euro from the payer’s account to an account held at another PSP that is also based in SEPA, and the payee receives that amount in euro. Both legs are euro. Both institutions are inside SEPA. That is the whole perimeter.

For PSPs within the territorial and institutional scope of Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 as amended by Regulation (EU) 2024/886, Article 5a imposes the statutory instant-credit-transfer execution requirements described below; non-EEA SEPA scheme participants apply the law applicable to them alongside the EPC rulebook. The payee’s PSP must make the funds available on the payee’s account within 10 seconds of the time the payer’s PSP received the order, must credit with the same-day value date, and must do so around the clock. Where confirmation does not arrive within 10 seconds, the payer’s PSP restores the payer’s account to its prior state. The Regulation also lets a payment service user set a maximum amount, per transaction or per day, above which the PSP will not execute the instant transfer.

SCT Inst combines a currency test and a geography test, and both must pass simultaneously: the payee must receive euro, and both PSPs must sit inside SEPA. A transfer where both PSPs sit in SEPA but the payee must receive a currency other than euro falls outside SCT Inst, because the scheme is euro end to end. A euro transfer where one institution sits outside SEPA also falls outside SCT Inst, because the scheme requires both PSPs inside SEPA. The SCT Inst scheme cannot be used to send euro from an account at an institution based in a non-SEPA country to a PSP in SEPA, or the reverse. In that scenario the OCT Inst scheme applies.

OCT Inst: the Euro Leg of qualifying international instant credit transfers

The OCT Inst scheme lets PSPs within SEPA enrich their international instant credit transfer offers. International instant credit transfers in euro, or in another currency, can be processed under it. OCT Inst governs the Euro Leg of an international instant credit transfer where at least one part is processed instantly in euro; the non-Euro Leg may be in another currency, and the financial institution operating that leg may be outside SEPA or may itself be established or licensed within SEPA. Euro end-to-end OCT Inst is permitted where the payer’s or payee’s financial institution is outside the SEPA schemes’ geographical scope.

The distinction that saves rework later is what OCT Inst actually standardises. It covers the Euro Leg of the international instant credit transfer: the part processed instantly in euro under the OCT Inst rules. The non-Euro Leg may involve a financial institution outside SEPA or one established or licensed within SEPA but operating in the non-Euro Leg, and that leg follows the applicable infrastructure, systems and practices outside the OCT Inst Euro Leg rules.

Currency is where OCT Inst differs most visibly from SCT Inst. The OCT Inst rules govern a Euro Leg denominated in euro; the associated non-Euro Leg may be in another currency, and at least one of the two legs must be denominated in euro. If your product moves value between the euro area and a non-euro instant rail, the settlement mechanics that sit underneath resemble the ones described in our note on cross-currency instant settlement over TIPS. The scheme choice and the settlement design are separate decisions, but they are decided together.

How the Instant Credit Transfer Scheme Selector reaches its answer

The Selector is built on three determinants, and they are worth internalising because they are the same three questions an operations reviewer will ask when a payment is queried:

  • In which currency does the payer want to send the funds: euro, or another currency?
  • In which currency must the payee receive the funds: also euro, or another currency?
  • In which countries are the sending and receiving institutions based: is only one inside SEPA, or are both inside SEPA?

Walk three concrete use cases through those questions. A payer with a PSP in France instructs an instant euro payment to a payee whose PSP is in Germany, and the payee receives euro. Both PSPs are in SEPA, both legs are euro, so this is an SCT Inst case. A payer with a PSP in the Netherlands instructs an international instant transfer to a payee whose financial institution is outside SEPA, with at least one leg denominated in euro. SCT Inst cannot carry that one-leg-out flow; the Euro Leg can run under OCT Inst. The same applies to an incoming international instant transfer from an institution outside SEPA to a PSP in SEPA where at least one leg is denominated in euro: the Euro Leg is an OCT Inst case. If neither leg is denominated in euro, OCT Inst does not apply.

The trap in that third determinant is what “based in SEPA” measures. It is about where the financial institutions are located, not where the customer resides and not the currency the account is denominated in. SEPA’s geographic scope is a defined list the EPC maintains, and it reaches beyond the euro area and beyond the EU to include a number of non-EEA territories. So an institution can be inside SEPA while operating in a non-euro currency, and a customer can be an EU resident while holding an account at an institution outside SEPA. Determine the institutions’ status within the SEPA Schemes’ Geographical Scope separately from the scheme-currency analysis.

Where Regulation (EU) 2024/886 sits alongside the schemes

It helps to keep the tool and the law in separate boxes. Regulation (EU) 2024/886, the SEPA Instant Payments Regulation of 13 March 2024, amends the SEPA Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 260/2012), the cross-border payments Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2021/1230), and two directives, and it is what makes instant euro transfers a legal obligation rather than a commercial option. The Selector’s role is to identify which EPC scheme rulebook governs a given transfer; it does not create, remove, or reschedule any of those obligations.

The Regulation’s mandate is anchored on euro instant credit transfers inside its scope: PSPs that already offer euro credit transfers must also offer instant euro credit transfers, on the dates set out above, with charges no higher than for the equivalent non-instant transfer, and with a payee-verification service offered free of charge. That mandate is the SCT Inst-shaped part of the picture. OCT Inst, by contrast, is an EPC scheme for the Euro Leg of qualifying international instant credit transfers, including certain euro/non-euro cross-currency flows where both financial institutions are within SEPA and one-leg-out flows involving a financial institution outside SEPA. Article 5a of Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 imposes requirements for instant euro credit transfers within that Regulation’s scope; PSPs should assess separately whether OCT Inst transfers fall within that scope.

Keep the Regulation’s legal scope and the EPC scheme rules separate. Article 5c of Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 requires verification of the payee for credit transfers within that Regulation’s scope, while the current EPC VOP scheme is limited to SCT and SCT Inst. Article 5d requires PSPs offering instant credit transfers within the Regulation’s framework to screen their payment service users immediately after new or amended EU targeted financial restrictive measures and at least once every calendar day, without duplicate transaction-time screening for those same measures.

One scoping point that recurs in reviews: the Regulation treats banks, EMIs, and payment institutions on different clocks. A euro-area credit institution had to send from 9 October 2025, but a euro-area EMI or payment institution, defined under Directive 2009/110/EC and Directive (EU) 2015/2366 respectively, has until 9 April 2027 to offer both directions. If your entity is an EMI or PI, the binding deadline to offer sending and receiving instant credit transfers in euro comes from Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 as amended by Regulation (EU) 2024/886: euro-area EMIs and PIs have until 9 April 2027. PSD3 should be tracked separately as a future-regime dependency that is not yet in application.

Adherence is per scheme, not per institution

To offer either scheme, a PSP adheres to that scheme’s rulebook and appears in the EPC Register of Participants. Scheme coverage is the gate. A PSP may adhere to OCT Inst individually, while the OCT Inst rulebook also permits an OCT Inst Processor to formally adhere to the scheme on behalf of participants using its services. This is the operational reality the Selector points at without stating, because a tool that tells you “this is an OCT Inst case” is only useful if your institution is actually an OCT Inst participant.

The misconception to retire is that SCT Inst participation carries OCT Inst participation with it. The two are separate rulebooks, each with its own adherence process and its own entry in the register, and participation in one does not carry the other. SCT Inst participation does not confer OCT Inst participation. OCT Inst requires separate scheme coverage, and its rulebook also permits an OCT Inst Processor to formally adhere on behalf of participants using its service. The EPC publishes a companion document, “Key Differences between the One-Leg Out Instant Credit Transfer and SEPA Instant Credit Transfer Scheme Rulebooks”, precisely because the two sets of rules diverge on more than geography.

The practical consequence for a scheme owner is a participation inventory covering the legal entities participating in each scheme, the reference BICs identifying those participants in the EPC Register, and the routing BICs and reachability configured separately with the relevant CSMs. A PSP running the same discipline for its EPC SEPA Request-to-Pay scheme participation already has the muscle for this; the OCT Inst and SCT Inst entries just extend the same register review.

The scheme you pick is also a reported attribute

There is a reporting tail to this decision that is easy to miss when the focus is execution. The scheme under which a credit transfer runs is an operational fact that also travels into payment statistics as a reported data element. The ECB’s payments-statistics framework is Regulation (EU) No 1409/2013 (ECB/2013/43), as amended by Regulation (EU) 2020/2011 (ECB/2020/59); it requires electronically initiated credit transfers to be reported separately for each scheme.

From 1 October 2026, RBFS 2025:1 applies to Sweden’s reporting of instant credit transfers. The Riksbank’s reporting instructions make the payment-scheme attribute mandatory and include separate codes for SEPA Instant (CTS_SEPAI) and EPC One-leg out instant credit transfer (CTS_EPCOLO), so an incorrect scheme mapping can produce an incorrect payment-scheme code in the return. The reporting logic behind Sweden’s payment statistics reporting under RBFS 2025:1 shows how granular that scheme attribute has become.

Payment-scheme classification is an explicit statistical attribute, so reporting mappings should classify SCT Inst and OCT Inst consistently with the scheme actually used and validate any national code mapping against the applicable reporting instructions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a PSP required to use the Instant Credit Transfer Scheme Selector?

No. The EPC provides it as a practical guidance tool for PSPs and payment service users who are unsure which of the two instant schemes applies. The binding obligations come from the scheme rulebooks a PSP has adhered to and from Regulation (EU) 2024/886, not from the tool.

Both PSPs are inside SEPA, but the payee must be paid in a non-euro currency. Is that SCT Inst?

No. SCT Inst is euro end to end, so the payee has to receive euro for the scheme to apply. If the payee must receive a currency other than euro, the transfer falls outside SCT Inst even when both institutions sit inside SEPA. The currency determinant governs here, not the geography, which is why the Selector asks about the sending and receiving currency before it resolves the case.

Does offering OCT Inst help meet the Regulation (EU) 2024/886 obligation to provide instant euro transfers?

Treat them as separate. The Regulation’s obligation is to make instant euro credit transfers available within its scope on the mandated dates. OCT Inst is a distinct EPC scheme governing the Euro Leg of international instant credit transfers: for cross-currency flows, the non-Euro Leg financial institution may be inside or outside SEPA, while euro end-to-end OCT Inst requires the payer’s or payee’s financial institution to be outside the SEPA schemes’ geographical scope. Adhering to OCT Inst extends an international offering; it is not itself the legal obligation imposed by Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 as amended.

Does the Selector cover ordinary SEPA Credit Transfers or SEPA Direct Debits?

The Selector covers the two instant credit transfer schemes only: SCT Inst and OCT Inst. Non-instant SEPA Credit Transfer and SEPA Direct Debit sit under their own EPC rulebooks and are outside the tool’s decision. If a use case is not an instant credit transfer at all, the Selector is not the right reference.

We adhered to SCT Inst in 2019. Can we process one-leg-out transfers now?

Not under OCT Inst rules unless the institution has also adhered to the OCT Inst scheme and appears in the Register of Participants for it. The two schemes have separate rulebooks and separate adherence. Check the register entry against the product’s actual use cases before assuming coverage.

How does the scheme choice show up later in reporting?

The processing scheme is a reported attribute in ECB payments statistics under Regulation (EU) No 1409/2013 as amended by Regulation (EU) 2020/2011, and national returns such as the Riksbank’s carry distinct code values for SEPA Instant and one-leg-out flows. The statistical return must report the applicable payment scheme, so reporting mappings should identify the scheme actually used; an incorrect mapping can therefore produce an incorrect scheme code.

Key Takeaways

  • The EPC published the Instant Credit Transfer Scheme Selector on 11 September 2026 as a decision aid; it names the applicable scheme but executes, screens, and clears nothing.
  • SCT Inst applies only when both PSPs are based in SEPA and the transfer is euro at both ends.
  • OCT Inst governs the Euro Leg of applicable international instant credit transfers. Its non-Euro Leg may involve a financial institution outside SEPA or one established or licensed within SEPA, while euro end-to-end OCT Inst is available where the payer’s or payee’s financial institution is outside the SEPA schemes’ geographical scope.
  • Three determinants settle the choice: the currency sent, the currency the payee must receive, and where each institution is based relative to SEPA.
  • “Based in SEPA” is about the institution’s location, not the customer’s residence or the account currency; SEPA reaches beyond the euro area and the EU.
  • SCT Inst and OCT Inst are separate rulebooks with separate adherence and separate Register of Participants entries; participation in one does not grant the other.
  • For Article 5a(1) PSPs, Regulation (EU) 2024/886 sets the staged instant-credit-transfer service deadlines; it also introduces charge parity, free payee verification, and Article 5d screening of PSUs against targeted financial restrictive measures immediately after new or amended measures and at least once every calendar day.
  • The processing scheme is a reported attribute in ECB payments statistics (Regulation (EU) No 1409/2013 as amended by Regulation (EU) 2020/2011) and national returns, so a scheme misclassification becomes a reporting error.

Sources and References

  • European Payments Council, “EPC launches Instant Credit Transfer Scheme Selector tool” (11 September 2026): europeanpaymentscouncil.eu
  • European Payments Council, “The EPC One-Leg Out Instant Credit Transfer (OCT Inst) payment scheme goes live” (28 November 2023): europeanpaymentscouncil.eu
  • European Payments Council, SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme: europeanpaymentscouncil.eu
  • European Payments Council, One-Leg Out Instant Credit Transfer (OCT Inst) scheme: europeanpaymentscouncil.eu
  • Regulation (EU) 2024/886 of 13 March 2024 as regards instant credit transfers in euro (OJ L, 2024/886, 19.3.2024): eur-lex.europa.eu
  • Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 establishing technical and business requirements for credit transfers and direct debits in euro: eur-lex.europa.eu
  • Regulation (EU) 2020/2011 amending Regulation (EU) No 1409/2013 on payments statistics: eur-lex.europa.eu

Getting the scheme call right before you build the flow

The Selector reduces a rulebook question to three inputs, but the work it triggers is on your side of the fence: confirm the institution has adhered to the scheme the tool names, and confirm the scheme attribute your systems will report matches the EPC scheme under which the transfer is processed, and keep that mapping separate from the CSM used for clearing and settlement. These deadlines apply to PSPs within the scope of Article 5a(1). For a euro-area bank, the Regulation’s instant-credit-transfer service obligations are already live; for a euro-area EMI or payment institution, the Article 5a sending-and-receiving deadline is 9 April 2027, while the general sending deadline for PSPs in non-euro Member States is 9 July 2027, subject to the specific national-currency-account derogation that can apply until 9 June 2028. Map your cross-border use cases against those dates now, run the marginal ones through the Selector, and reconcile the answer against your Register of Participants entries before the flow goes into production.

Disclaimer: The information on RegReportingDesk.com is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal, regulatory, tax, or compliance advice. Always consult your compliance officer, legal counsel, or the relevant supervisory authority for guidance specific to your institution.

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