SEPA message standards

This section describes SEPA message standards and provides an overview of the UNIFI ISO 20022 (UNIFI) standard upon which the SEPA standard is based.

Note: The terms "UNIFI" and "ISO 20022" are used interchangeably throughout this and other SEPA documentation. Both refer to the ISO 20022 Universal Financial Industry message scheme.

This platform was proposed by the International Standards Organization (ISO) to be used to develop all financial industry messages. It must be understood that UNIFI by itself does not describe messages. Rather, it can be thought of as a recipe to be used to develop financial industry message standards. The main ingredients of this recipe are a development methodology, a registration process, and a central repository.