EPC QR code

The European Payments Council (EPC) Quick Response (QR) code is a technical standard by the European Payments Council. It uses a QR code containing all the necessary information for initiating a SEPA credit transfer (SCT). It is commonly used on invoices and payment requests in the countries that support it (Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, The Netherlands).

The EPC guidelines^[1] are available from the EPC itself. Another version^[2][3] has also been published by the Federation of Finnish Finance Services (FFI).

So the QR string could be

BCD
001
1
SCT
BPOTBEB1
Red Cross of Belgium
BE72000000001616
EUR1
CHAR

Urgency fund
Sample EPC QR code

In 2012, the Austrian payment facilitator STUZZA^[4] (now part of PSA Payment Services Austria) defined the content of a QR code that could be used to initiate money transfers within the Single Euro Payments Area.

In February 2013, the European Payments Council (EPC) published the document 'Quick Response Code: Guidelines to Enable Data Capture for the Initiation of a Credit Transfer'. ^[5]

These guidelines were quickly adopted by the Austrian banks. These QR code can be recognised thanks to the words "Zahlen mit Code" (Pay with Code) on the right.^[6]

These guidelines were later on used in Finland in 2015,^[7] Germany in 2015^[8] and the Netherlands ^[9] in 2016.

• Short Payment Descriptor
• International Bank Account Number (IBAN)