SEPA Instant Credit Transfers

Introduction

SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (Instant SCT) is a payment scheme that allows customers with bank accounts in a member country of the SEPA Scheme to make and receive SEPA Credit Transfers that are processed in less than 10 seconds. An Instant SCT transaction has a maximum of EUR 100,000. With this feature, your customers can receive and send Instant SCTs from and to any participating bank.

This guide explains how to implement this feature into your solution.

info

See the overview page to learn more about SEPA and the different types of SEPA payment schemes.

Prerequisites

You can only implement this feature after you have onboarded your customers with bank accounts and cards. See the Get started guide for instructions on how to implement the customer onboarding process for Digital Banking & Cards.

Important
  • Instant SCT support is not enabled by default for your customers' accounts. Contact your Partner Manager to activate this feature.
  • Starting from 09.01.2025, you will be required to support incoming Instant SCTs in your solution to comply with EU regulations. Please contact your Partner Manager for more information.

Account reachability

Account reachability is essential for Instant SCTs as not all bank accounts can accept this kind of transfer. For example, the bank of the recipient's account must be reachable via the Instant SCT scheme. Otherwise, the transaction will fail.

How does an Instant SCT work?

Once you've enabled this feature, your customers can receive and send Instant SCTs from their accounts to external bank accounts as long as such accounts are reachable via the Instant SCT scheme.

Below you'll find the product flow and the endpoints and webhooks you need to integrate into your solution.

Product flow

To view a larger version of this diagram, right-click on the image and click "Open in a new tab."

Diagram: Instant SCT product flow

The product flow consists of the following steps:

  1. Your customer can initiate an Instant SCT transaction from your frontend by specifying the transaction details, such as the amount, recipient's IBAN and name, and a description of the transaction.
  2. We highly recommend validating the provided IBAN using the GET Check the reachability of the bank endpoint to ensure that the bank is reachable via Instant SCT to avoid transaction failure.
  3. Call the POST Create an Instant SCT to create the transaction.
  4. Your customer must authorize the transaction using the Change request process.
  5. After successful authorization, Solaris will process the created Instant SCT and make a reservation on the account of the type SepaInstantCreditTransfer. At this stage, the transaction status will change to READY_FOR_CLEARING.
  6. Solaris confirms the transaction with TARGET Instant Payments (TIPS) scheme.
  7. After the scheme's confirmation, the SCT status changes to CLEARED. Meanwhile, Solaris resolves the reservation on the account, creates a booking on the sender's account of the type SepaInstantCreditTransfer, and transfers the funds.
  8. The recipient receives the transaction.

API reference

Visit this section to find all endpoints related to the Instant SCT feature.

GET Check the reachability of the bank

Before initiating an Instant SCT transaction, call this endpoint to ensure that the recipient's bank is reachable to avoid transaction failure.

Request URL

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GET /v1/sepa_instant_reachability/{iban}

Click here to view the full API reference.

POST Create a SEPA Instant Credit Transfer

Once you confirm that the bank is reachable, you can create an Instant SCT using the following endpoint. You must add the mandatory fields for the transaction details in the request body.

note

This endpoint triggers the 2FA flow. Your customer must authorize the transaction using the Change request process.

Request URL

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POST /v1/accounts/{account_id}/transactions/sepa_instant_credit_transfers

Click here to view the full API reference.

GET Index all SEPA Instant Credit Transfers for an account

Click here to view the full API reference.

Webhooks

Subscribe to the following webhook events to receive updates about your customers' Instant SCTs:

Instant SCT transaction flow

The following diagram explains the transaction flow and each status of an Instant SCT:

Diagram: Instant SCT status flow

Status Description
INITIATED A SEPA Instant Credit Transfer is successfully created but not yet processed.
RESERVED A SEPA Instant Credit Transfer is being processed internally by Solaris, and reservations are made to lock funds availability.
READY_FOR_CLEARING All internal checks are successful, pending the scheme's confirmation.
CLEARED The transaction was successfully settled, bookings were made on the account, and and the receiving bank confirmed crediting the account.

Instant SCT for reference accounts

To initiate Instant SCT transactions for reference accounts, use the reference account payouts endpoints linked below. To create an Instant SCT to a reference account, you must set the field instant_payment_rail to sepa_instant in the request body otherwise the transaction will be processed as a standard SCT.

Please note that you also have to check the bank reachability for Instant SCTs for reference accounts by calling GET Check the reachability of the bank before initiating a transaction.

Webhook events

Subscribe to the following webhook events to receive updates about Instant SCTs for reference accounts:

Sandbox testing

To simulate a successful Instant SCT on Sandbox (i.e., the transaction will be cleared and then created), then send an Instant SCT to the following test account:

  • IBAN: DE30110101990000000001
  • BIC: ACCPITRRXXX

To simulate a failed Instant SCT (i.e., the transaction will be rejected and therefore not created), then send an Instant SCT to the following test account:

  • IBAN: DE30110101970000000002
  • BIC: REJEITRRXXX