How to read a SEPA transaction: BIC, remittance, and charges
Every SEPA transaction carries a dozen fields of information. Knowing what each means is the difference between a reconciliation that takes 30 seconds and one that takes 30 minutes.
Every SEPA Credit Transfer carries a set of standardised fields that together describe the payment. Most banking apps hide most of them most of the time, but when you need to reconcile a payment or chase one that went wrong, knowing how to read them is a quiet superpower. Here is the field-by-field tour.
IBAN
The recipient's account number in standard EU format. First 2 letters: country code. Next 2 digits: checksum. Rest: bank + account identifier. If an IBAN looks wrong, the checksum will typically catch it client-side before submission.
BIC (SWIFT code)
The receiving bank's global identifier. For intra-SEPA transfers, usually optional (your bank can derive BIC from IBAN). For international (SWIFT) transfers, mandatory. Format: 8-11 characters, bank + country + location + branch.
Amount and currency
SEPA Credit Transfers are always in EUR. Non-EUR amounts route through SWIFT. The amount is to 2 decimal places; "EUR 100.00" and "EUR 100,00" are both valid per locale formatting.
Remittance information (end-to-end reference)
This is the free-text field where the sender can put an invoice number, order reference, or any note. Maximum 140 characters. On the receiving side, this is often the primary tool for reconciliation ("invoice INV-2026-042"). Businesses: insist on structured remittance from your customers (invoice number pattern) to automate reconciliation.
UETR (Unique End-to-end Transaction Reference)
Added by SWIFT GPI, now adopted by SEPA Instant too. A unique UUID per transaction that lets both sender and receiver track the specific payment through its full journey, including through any correspondent banks. If a transfer goes missing, this is the reference your bank will use when investigating.
Charge bearer
Who pays the transaction fee. SHA (shared — both sides pay their own bank): default for SEPA. OUR (sender pays all fees including recipient's bank fee): used in some corporate contexts. BEN (recipient pays all fees): rare for SEPA.
Value date vs booking date
Value date: when the funds become available for use. Booking date: when the transaction appears on the statement. For same-day SEPA Instant, these are identical. For regular SEPA, booking appears same-day but value date is next business day. Reconciliation should always use value date, not booking date.
Debtor and creditor identifiers
The sender's and recipient's respective bank-assigned identifiers. For SEPA Direct Debit mandates, the "creditor ID" plus "mandate reference" uniquely identifies the authorisation. For SEPA Credit Transfers, these are less commonly used but still present.
Why this matters
When a transfer goes astray, you will be asked for one or more of: IBAN, UETR, amount, value date, remittance info. Having a workflow that captures and stores these per transaction (your bank's export CSV usually includes them) turns an annoying call to the bank into a 2-minute lookup.