You must enter the mandatory mandate information on the SEPA mandate form, which you can design yourself. The SEPA mandate form must at least contain fields for the following data elements:
You can assign this yourself and it should have the following attributes:
A standard text which mentions to the debtor if a refund period is applicable and a reference to the debtor's bank if the debtor wishes to obtain a refund.
Debtor's name.
Debtor's address, including city/town and country (only required in case you or the debtor are located in a country outside the European Economic Area).
Debtor's IBAN.
Place and date of signature.
Debtor's signature.
A mandate must be clearly separated from the rest of the text on the form or other documents. For example, the mandate cannot be part of the conditions of a contract.
A mandate contains data susceptible to fraud. We therefore advice you to send the mandate together with a return envelope to the debtor and ask the debtor to return the form in the sealed envelope.
Sometimes the mandate data change, for example because your debtor gets a new account number or because you change the mandate reference. To amend a mandate you need the authorisation of your debtor and your own authorisation. You can best arrange this by getting your debtor to sign a new mandate.
In the case of the SEPA Direct Debit Core Scheme, however, things may be done differently in a number of situations:
Your debtor gets a different account number. Here your debtor sends you a notice of change, which must have been validly signed by the debtor.
You change your name, creditor ID or mandate reference. You inform your debtor's about this and at the same time offer them the possibility of an opt-out.
The opt-out possibility means that you give your debtor's the possibility of objecting to the amendment within a reasonable period (e.g. four weeks). And you must clearly state how your debtor's can make an objection. If your debtor's do not object, you may assume that they agree to the amendment. Keep the amendment notice you have sent to your debtor's. You can then hand over both the original mandate and the amendment notice in the case of a Request for Refund of an unauthorised transaction. No standard forms exist for opt-outs. This is something you must arrange yourself.
Please note that this procedure entails a risk. Your debtor can indicate in a Request for Refund for an unauthorised transaction that he has not received your amendment notice and therefore does not agree to the amendment. If you do not wish to run this risk, we recommend that you get your debtor's to sign a new mandate.
In this overview you can find the details of what you can do in case you or your debtor amend(s) the mandate.
Changing creditor ID
Have you been involved in a merger or takeover? If so, please note that it is not always necessary to change your creditor ID. Read here in what situations you can continue using your creditor ID.
SEPA B2B Direct Debit
If the data of a SEPA B2B Direct Debit mandate change, a new mandate must always be signed and your debtor must register the changed data with its own bank.
Special guidelines apply if any of the following data in an existing SEPA mandate change for collection of the next SEPA Direct Debit:
If any of these data change, you should deliver the next SEPA collection instruction as follows:
the 'amendment indicator' field has the value 'true';
both the original and the altered data are supplied with the instruction.
You have to archive a valid mandate at least 14 months after execution of the last SEPA Direct Debit collection. The mandate expires after 36 months if you have not collected a SEPA Direct Debit during this period. Do you want to start the collection process again? Then your client has to sign a new mandate.
