SEPA Countries
SEPA — the Single Euro Payments Area — allows individuals and businesses to make and receive euro-denominated bank transfers across 36 member countries under the same conditions as a domestic payment: same fees, same processing times, same rules.
Whether a country is in SEPA matters practically: transfers within SEPA require only an IBAN, settle within one business day (or instantly via SEPA Instant), and cannot be charged higher fees than domestic transfers. Transfers to non-SEPA countries require a SWIFT/BIC code and typically take 2–5 business days with variable fees.
What is SEPA?
SEPA standardises euro bank transfers so that sending money to Germany is as simple as sending it to your own bank — same speed, same fees, same process.
SEPA covers 36 countries — all EU members plus several non-EU countries (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, UK, and others).
- ✓ SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT): standard transfers within 1 business day
- ✓ SEPA Instant (SCT Inst): transfers in under 10 seconds, 24/7
- ✓ SEPA Direct Debit (SDD): pull payments across borders
- ✓ Requires IBAN (and sometimes BIC) to identify accounts
SEPA Member Countries (36)
Non-SEPA IBAN Countries (45)
These countries use IBAN but are not SEPA members. Transfers to/from these countries are international transfers — fees and processing times vary.