German Retail Payments: The Deutsche Bundesbank’s clearing service

As the cornerstone of the German financial system, the Deutsche Bundesbank provides a cost-effective, high-performance platform for non-urgent Euro retail payments (the English term for Massenzahlungsverkehr), known as the EMZ (Elektronischer Massenzahlungsverkehr). It serves as a reliable, neutral infrastructure for credit institutions and public authorities.

The German Retail Payment System

The Deutsche Bundesbank’s RPS is essentially divided into two services:

1. SEPA-Clearer: Processes SEPA credit transfers, SEPA direct debits, and SCC card collections.
2. EMZ cheque processing service: Processes euro-denominated cheque payments between domestic credit institutions.

Real-time payments (SEPA Instant Payments) are processed within the TARGET system via TIPS (TARGET Instant Payment System) and are not part of the EMZ.

Europe-wide reachability in the SEPA-Clearer

Participation in the SEPA-Clearer is generally open to all credit institutions that have signed the adherence agreements for the European Payments Council’s SEPA schemes (SEPA Credit Transfer and/or SEPA Direct Debit) or are part of the Girocard agreement (SCC card collections). Connection to the system can be established either directly or indirectly.

For banks that participate neither directly nor indirectly, the Bundesbank forwards payments via direct bilateral links to other European clearing houses, such as Payment Service Austria, Iberpay, or Worldline. In addition, the Bundesbank is a direct participant in the SCT and SDD services of EBA CLEARING’s STEP2 clearing house.

The processing logic of the SEPA-Clearer

Only the TARGET calendar applies to processing within the SEPA clearer; national and regional public holidays are not taken into account. The submission and receipt of payments are possible only via remote data transmission using EBICS and SWIFTNet FileAct.

• SEPA-Transfers (SCT): The booking and delivery of the equivalent values ​​take place immediately after the respective submission window. Submissions made between 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. are booked with a value date of the next business day (D+1).
• SEPA-Direct Debit (SDD-Core/B2B): Delivery and booking occur at different times. Delivery takes place in multiple windows throughout the day. The booking of the corresponding values ​​occurs subsequently on the individual payment due date—specifically, on the business day prior to the interbank settlement date (excluding R-transactions).

The check processing service

Check payments are processed via the EMZ check processing service:

• Paperless check collection procedure (BSE): For checks under EUR 6,000. Physical exchange is generally eliminated.
• Image-based check collection process (ISE): For cheques of EUR 6,000 or more. Cheques are submitted as electronic images accompanied by a clearing data record. The images are exchanged via the Bundesbank’s ExtraNet.

SEPA-Clearer Fees

The Bundesbank charges a uniform fee of EUR 0.0025 per data record for the submission of payments to the SEPA-Clearer (including forwarding to other clearing houses). Such a bulk file can contain up to 100,000 transactions. No fees are charged for delivery.

If you are a financial institution looking to connect to the SEPA-Clearer and are seeking a modern, cost-effective solution, we look forward to hearing from you.

There is also an informative video about the SEPA-Clearer on YouTube.