The essentials in brief:
- What it is: the "documento SEPA", or SEPA mandate, is the direct debit order with which you give a creditor prior, express and signed authorisation to collect from you by direct debit.
- Who keeps it: the creditor collecting the money, not your bank; you only sign it and return it.
- What data it carries: the unique mandate reference, the creditor’s and debtor’s details, the IBAN, the payment type, the date and the signature; the BIC can no longer be required.
- Refunds: eight weeks from the debit for an authorised SEPA direct debit, and up to thirteen months if it was not authorised.
- B2B: only between companies or freelancers, with the bank checking payment by payment and no right to a refund.
A software supplier sends you a PDF to sign before it starts charging your monthly fee. At the top it says "mandato SEPA", further down there is a space for your IBAN and another for your signature. In the other direction, your company starts selling a subscription and you want to collect it by direct debit instead of chasing transfers every month. In both cases the paper that matters is the same: the SEPA mandate.
It is a short document, but every field has its reason and its rule behind it: Royal Decree-law 19/2018 on payment services, Regulation (EU) 260/2012 and the rules of the European Payments Council, which sets the common format across the whole SEPA area. With those rules in mind you can sign knowing what you authorise, which details must appear, how the CORE and B2B schemes work and what rights you keep afterwards.
What the SEPA mandate is
The SEPA mandate is the direct debit order that makes a direct debit possible. The Banco de España describes a direct debit as a charge to the account of the person paying the bill that is initiated by the payee, the company charging for its services. For that charge to be valid you need to authorise it as the account holder, and the Banco de España defines this as a prior, express and signed authorisation so that payments can start from a given date. That signed authorisation is the SEPA mandate.
With your signature you authorise two things at once: the creditor to send instructions to your bank to debit your account, and your bank to make those debits following its instructions. The order can cover a single payment or recurring payments, every month, quarter or year, and in the second case each bill does not have to be authorised separately. One detail sets it apart: the mandate is not handed to the bank. Under Regulation (EU) 260/2012, the orders and their changes or cancellations stay with the payee, that is, with the creditor collecting the money.
What data the SEPA mandate carries
The SEPA direct debit order follows a common format in every SEPA country. The Regulation’s annex lists the data that accompany each order, and the European Payments Council guidelines set out the mandatory fields of the form. These are the ones you will find on any mandate:
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Unique mandate reference | The code that identifies this order; the creditor communicates it before the first collection |
| Creditor details | Name, address and identifier of whoever is collecting |
| Debtor name | The holder of the account the bills will be debited to |
| Debtor address | Street, postcode, city and country of whoever pays; required only if either institution is outside the EEA |
| Debtor IBAN | The account the direct debits will be charged to |
| Payment type | Recurring or one-off |
| Date and place | When and where the order is signed |
| Signature | That of the holder or of whoever can operate the account |
Two fields that used to be common are no longer needed. The Regulation prohibits institutions from requiring the BIC code since 2014 for domestic payments and since 2016 for cross-border ones, and the European Payments Council guidelines treat it as optional when both institutions are in the European Economic Area. Nor should a country code be pre-printed in the IBAN field: the form has to leave it blank so the debtor can write their account, whichever country it is from. The creditor identifier, which the Regulation calls the payee identifier code, is mandatory: it is what lets your bank know who is behind each collection.
How to fill in the SEPA mandate
The creditor prepares the form with its details already filled in, and it can arrive on paper or as a SEPA mandate PDF to fill in. It is requested by whoever is going to charge you, because they keep the order. If you are the one paying, the process is this:
Make sure the creditor’s name, address and identifier match the company you have a contract with. If the mandate reference is already there, note it down with the contract.
Fill in your name or company name, your address with postcode, city and country, and the full IBAN of the account you want the bills to be charged to.
State whether you authorise periodic collections, for example a monthly fee, or a single payment. If the form includes a B2B box, tick it only if both parties are companies or freelancers.
Add the date, place and signature and send the document to the creditor, who keeps it. Keep a copy so you know what you have authorised and from when.
CORE and B2B SEPA mandates
There are two SEPA direct debit schemes and each mandate is signed for one of them. CORE is the general scheme and serves consumers and businesses alike. B2B, business to business, is reserved for transactions in which both the payer and the payee are companies or freelancers, and the order must state expressly that it accepts this scheme. They are two types of SEPA mandate with different rules:
| Aspect | CORE scheme | B2B scheme |
|---|---|---|
| Who can sign it | Consumers, freelancers and companies | Only companies and freelancers, on both sides |
| Check by the debtor’s bank | No consent needed payment by payment | Obtains prior consent payment by payment |
| Refund of an authorised debit | Eight weeks from the debit | No right to a refund |
| Availability | General scheme | Voluntary for institutions |
What changes most is the refund. With a B2B mandate, the debtor gives up the right to get the bill refunded once it has been charged, although they can ask their bank not to debit it until the due date. Article 34 of Royal Decree-law 19/2018 allows this: it lets anyone who is not a consumer agree that some refund rights do not apply. That is why B2B suits stable relationships between companies, where the creditor wants certainty that the collection will not be reversed.
Worth knowing: the scheme is written into the mandate itself. Before signing a SEPA mandate marked B2B, it is worth confirming that the relationship is between businesses, because that mandate gives no right to get the bill refunded once it has been charged.
Refunds and cancelling the mandate
Under the CORE scheme, the law gives the payer a generous window. For SEPA direct debits, Royal Decree-law 19/2018 grants an unconditional right to a refund for eight weeks counted from the date of the debit. The institution has ten working days to return the amount and, for SEPA direct debits, it cannot refuse. If the charge was not authorised, it must be reported without undue delay and at the latest within thirteen months of the debit date. The institution must then return the amount by the end of the next working day, unless it has reasonable grounds to suspect fraud and reports them to the Banco de España. For companies and freelancers, the contract with the institution can change some of these periods, so it is worth checking. The Banco de España specifically mentions micro-enterprises, those with fewer than ten staff and no more than two million euros of turnover or balance sheet: they may be excluded from the eight-week refund unless the contract provides for it.
Cancelling a mandate follows its own rule. The law allows the payment order to be revoked until the end of the working day before the day set for the debit, and the Banco de España points out that the cancellation must be made expressly, in a dated and signed document. If it arrives late, it only affects the following bills. The cancellation goes to both the creditor and the institution, so that neither keeps relying on the order.
What you can ask your bank about direct debits
Signing a SEPA mandate does not leave the account open to any charge. Regulation (EU) 260/2012 gives the payer the right to instruct their institution to limit direct debit collections to a set amount or frequency, or both. Where the order gives no refund right, they can also ask for each direct debit to be checked against the order before it is charged. And they can ask for all direct debits on the account to be blocked, or only those of certain creditors.
For a business, these options are useful when an account is used only for certain payments: a limit per bill avoids surprises if a supplier changes its rates, and selective blocking closes the door on a creditor you no longer work with. The Regulation makes one exception: these rights are not mandatory when neither the payer nor the payee is a consumer, so in business-to-business relationships they depend on what each institution offers.
If your company collects by direct debit
When your company is on the other side, as the creditor, the SEPA mandate becomes your responsibility. The Regulation places the orders with the payee, so it is up to you to keep every signed mandate, with its changes and cancellations, for the whole relationship. Before the first collection, the client must have given you the IBAN of their account, and you must have given them the unique mandate reference if it was not already there when they signed.
Choosing the scheme is the other decision. With clients who are consumers, only CORE is possible. With companies or freelancers you can propose B2B, which avoids refunds, as long as the client’s institution offers it, because it is voluntary for institutions. Even under B2B, institutions can reject or return a bill for insufficient funds, an invalid mandate or an incorrect file format, among other reasons, up to two working days after the due date. If both institutions are in the EEA, there is no need for the BIC: the IBAN is enough.
Direct debits with Vivid
With the Vivid business account you can pay direct debits under the SEPA CORE scheme: all it takes is giving your Spanish Vivid IBAN on the SEPA mandate the supplier sends you. The amount is reserved on the afternoon of the business day before the debit, and if a SEPA direct debit does not look right, you can return any one less than 56 days old straight from the app. Vivid works with the CORE scheme; B2B mandates are not available at the moment.
Bills can also be debited straight to a pocket. With sub-accounts with their own IBAN you can send, for example, software and insurance to one pocket and utilities to another, each with its own number. And if you are coming from another institution, the "Direct Debit switch" tool helps you move the direct debits you already have. To see what else Vivid offers companies and freelancers, visit Vivid Business.
Vivid in brief: SEPA CORE bills charged to the account or pocket of your choice, with refunds from the app for 56 days. Moving your direct debits over from another institution is free on every plan.
Your bills, in the account you choose
Pay SEPA CORE direct debits from your Vivid business account or on a pocket with its own IBAN, and bring over the ones you already have with "Direct Debit switch".
Frequently asked questions
Where do I get a SEPA mandate to fill in?
The creditor provides it, that is, the company that is going to collect from you, with its details and identifier already filled in. A SEPA mandate PDF downloaded from any website is no use if it does not carry that specific creditor’s details.
Does the mandate have to go to the bank?
No. Under Regulation (EU) 260/2012, direct debit orders and their changes stay with the payee. You sign the document and return it to the creditor; your bank only receives the collections the creditor sends.
Is the BIC needed on a SEPA mandate?
No. The Regulation prevents institutions from requiring the BIC since 2014 for domestic payments and since 2016 for cross-border ones. If both institutions are in the European Economic Area, the IBAN of the account the bills will be charged to is enough.
How long do I have to get a direct debit refunded?
With a CORE mandate, eight weeks from the date of the debit for an authorised SEPA direct debit, and up to thirteen months if the charge was not authorised. With a B2B mandate there is no right to a refund once the bill has been charged.
Can a SEPA mandate be cancelled?
Yes. The order can be revoked until the end of the working day before the scheduled debit, in a dated and signed document. If the cancellation arrives later, it only affects the following bills.
What happens if a bill is collected without a mandate?
A charge without the account holder’s consent is an unauthorised transaction. It must be reported to the institution without undue delay and at the latest within thirteen months of the debit date; the institution must return the amount by the end of the next working day, unless there is a well-founded suspicion of fraud.
Can a freelancer sign a B2B mandate?
Yes. The B2B scheme is designed for both the payer and the payee to be companies or freelancers. The order must state expressly that it accepts that scheme, and with it the right to get the bill refunded once charged is given up.
What is the mandate reference?
It is the unique code that identifies each mandate. It may not be available when the mandate is signed, but the creditor must give it to you before the first collection, and it accompanies every direct debit charged to your account.
This article provides general information and does not constitute legal advice. The rules come from Royal Decree-law 19/2018, Regulation (EU) 260/2012, the Banco de España and the European Payments Council; the specific conditions depend on the contract with each institution. Vivid Money S.A. is an e-money institution authorised by the CSSF (Luxembourg); its branch in Spain is registered with the Banco de España under number 6731.
