SEPA COUNTRY SPECIFIC INFORMATION

SLOVAKIA
Cash Management & eBanking
The aim of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) project is to unify the rules and standards of Euro payments (credit transfers and
direct debits). The principal objective of SEPA is practically to abolish the borders for Euro payments. Within SEPA the consumers,
corporates and other economic entities will be able to send and receive Euro payments within one country, or among the respective
countries under the same conditions, rights and duties without regard to the country, in which they have their accounts opened.
This document provides an overview of all country specific information you need in order to successfully overcome the challenges
of SEPA and achieve a seamless migration. Being fully informed and properly equipped with the necessary tools, you will be able to
fully realize the potential all new SEPA instruments will bring.
Basic information about SEPA in Slovakia you can find on the website of the National Bank of Slovakia
[Link]
END-DATE INFORMATION
SEPA has become a regulatory project, the mandatory end-date was agreed for 1

st

of February 2014. The main technical and

business requests for SEPA credit transfers and SEPA Direct Debit according to the Regulation (EU) no. 260/2012:

Communication between banks and SIPS (Slovak Interbank Payment System) in local formats via SEPA convertor:
st

Till: 31 of January 2014

Communication between banks and SIPS only in ISO 20022 XML formats
st

Since: 1 of February 2014

Communication between customers and banks in ISO 20022 XML format with exceptions*
st

st

Since: 1 of February 2014 - till 31 of January 2016

Communication between customers and banks in ISO 20022 XML format without exceptions*
st

Since: 1 of February 2016

BIC as an optional data for customers

st

Since: 1 of February 2014 - for domestic transactions

st

Since: 1 of February 2016 - for cross-border transactions

Niche products:
there are no niche products in Slovakia

Conversion services for consumers:

st

Till: 31 of January 2016

*Exceptions:
a) for using the IBAN. The customer will keep using the account number in the form of the BBAN (Basic Bank Account Number)
and the bank will convert it to the IBAN (International Bank Account Number).
b) for using XML messaging formats . The corporates will be allowed to use the existing formats. During the transition period the
bank will support the existing formats extended by the mandatory fields of SEPA standard.
IBAN CONVERSION SERVICE

conversion tools offered by UniCredit Bank Slovakia a.s.

UniCredit Bank Slovakia a.s. has developed a proprietary conversion service - an IBAN to-and-from method - able to determine and
update IBAN and BIC for the accounts held with us.

IBAN structure

In Slovakia, the IBAN is composed of 24 characters, structured as follows:

o

Positions 1 to 2: ISO country code (SK for Slovakia)

Positions 3 to 4: check digits

Positions 5 to 8: bank identifier (bank code e.g. 1111 in case of UniCredit Bank Slovakia a.s.)

Characters 9 to 24: account number*

maximum 6 digits for a prefix

maximum 10 digits for a main account number

* please note that some Slovak account numbers can have less digits than maximum; in this case '0' should be added on the left side in order to
reach the 16 characters (e.g. the account number with the prefix 0000190000123123; the account number without prefix 0000001234567890)

SEPA PRODUCTS
Domestic products
domestic EUR credit transfers will have to be migrated to SEPA Credit Transfers (SCT)

domestic direct debits will have to be migrated to SEPA Direct Debits - SDD Core or SDD B2B

COMPARISON - Credit Transfer in local format vs. SEPA Credit Transfer

Credit Transfer

SEPA Credit Transfer

in local format

For domestic payments

Coverage area

only for domestic payments

IBAN / BIC

BBAN and National Bank Code of beneficiary required

IBAN / BIC* of beneficiary required

Interbank transactions in EUR currency only; creditor

SHA fees only, EUR currency only, creditor account in

account in SK bank only

SEPA banks;

Debit: at execution date,

Debit: at execution date,

Credit: intra-bank: D+0**

Credit:

Transactions

standard payments to other banks:

and cross-border payments within SEPA countries

D+1**

urgent payments to other bank D+0**

intra-bank: D+0**
EEA
standard paymentsD+1**

Execution date

urgent payments D+0**

Outside of EEA, paper based payments
Standard value date D+2**
urgent D+1**
Variable symbol, specific symbol, constant symbol
Payment identification

End To End Reference

* BIC mandatory for domestic payments till 1st of February 2014 and for cross-border payments till 1st of February 2016;
**working days

COMPARISON - Direct Debits in local format vs. SEPA Direct Debits

SDD is a new standard for receivables collection, for EUR payments only, characterized by two different schemes : CORE and B2B,
st

from the 1 of February 2014 which the bank will accept also for local payments. The process is based on a mandate signed by the
debtor/payer and presented to the creditor/payee. The mandate content is standardized and must be issued in the local language
of the debtor. SDD service will be specially contracted, i.e. only the payee with whom the bank will make an agreement, will be
able to use it.

While designing your migration approach, make sure you understand the related impact, as also summarized below:

Criteria

SDD Core

Direct Debit in local format

Allowance of SDD
collection

local format does not contain all

necessary data to allow SDD

SDD B2B

yes

Region

only domestic (SK)

domestic and cross border

domestic and cross border

Format

Local KV format

ISO 20022 XML

ISO 20022 XML

Sequence Type

N/A

first / recurrent / one-off

first / recurrent / one-off

Eligible debtor

consumer and non-consumer

consumer and non-consumer

non-consumer only

paid after acceptance

D-5 (first / one-off)

of collection request

D-2 (recurrent)

Submission** and due date

D-1 (all)

by the debtor bank

Debit mandate flow
Mandate management

mandate kept by the debtor bank

mandate kept by the creditor

and by the debtor bank

unconditional refund right within

no refund is possible for an

8 weeks, following the date of

authorized DD - it is irrevocable

Refunds

mandate kept by the creditor

debit; 13 months for an

13 months for an unauthorized

no refund possible

unauthorized transaction

transaction

Mandate checking is mandatory

Mandate will be stored and has to

mandate must be stored at

for the debtor bank;

be checked by debtor's bank in

debtor's bank before the first

Mandate contains a maximum

case of conditionally protected

collection and checked by debtor

collection limit also

client account

bank with every debit entry

N/A

14 days before due date

14 days before due date

Mandate checking

Pre-notification

SEPA CREDITOR IDENTIFIER (CID)

CID for Slovakia is structured as follows:

o

Positions 1 to 2: ISO country code (SK for Slovakia)

Positions 3 to 4: check digits

Positions 5 to 7: Creditor Business Code (to be assigned by creditor, by default 'ZZZ')

Characters 8 to 18: Creditor National Identifier for the creditor, numbered in consecutive ascending order; beginning
with digit 7 from the left side (e.g. 70000000025)

How to get a Creditor Identifier?

The creditors are registered with a standardized, unique and harmonizes identification number CID (Creditor Identifier). CID is a
prerequisite of SEPA Direct Debit.
The payee shall ask his bank for the CID, any of the several, and he can use for the direct debit only one CID regardless of the bank
and the account, from which the direct debit is effected. The list of the CID is managed by the National Bank of Slovakia.

MANDATE INFORMATION
Mandate Migration
Based on the Regulation (EU) no. 260/2012 a continuity clause for existing mandates has been enabled:

the existent mandates, given by debtors to their banks until the 1 of February 14 remain valid for SDD Core

for SDD B2B will always be required the signature of a new mandate

st

Migration rules:
st

Since the 1 of February 2014 the banks will implement the protection of the payer accounts in accordance with SEPA standards as follows:

Accounts fully open to any direct debit or

Conditionally protected accounts, i.e. the accounts open to the direct debit, which the payer agreed with in advance or

the accounts closed to any direct debits.

In Slovakia the banks will migrate all payer accounts as conditionally protected accounts on the 1st of February 2014.

COUNTRY SPECIFIC FORMATS are based on local KV format which is used by all domestic banks.
Overview of Products related to Domestic Formats
Direct debits in Slovakia are largely used as payment collection instruments and are generally processed in local KV format. The
same file format is used for domestic credit transfers.

Type
HD:32 and HD:12 / local KV

Description
Used for request for collection

format via SIPS

HD:11 / local KV format via SIPS

SWIFT MT103 - to TARGET2

Formats
SDD CORE and SDD B2B /XML

31 st of January 2014

and direct debit

31 st of January 2014

used for domestic credit transfers

used for urgent payments

Target Product and Specifics /

End date

SCT /XML

no end date has been defined

MT103 - to TARGET2

so far

XML related Payment Initiation, Booking Information and account statements

Availability at Unicredit Bank SK

XML urgent
pain.001

pain.001

pain.002

pain.008

camt.052

camt.053

camt.054

camt.086

yes

yes

no

yes

yes

yes

no

no

REMITTANCE INFORMATION
Unstructured remittance information (140 characters) is recommended. E2E reference is conventionally used for reconciliation
purposes in SK.

CHANNELS FOR SEPA PAYMENT INITIATION

MultiCash
Business Net Professional
EuropeanGate
Paper based

SEPA Credit transfer

SEPA Direct Debit CORE /B2B

Other transfers in XML format

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

Yes
Yes
No
No

No
Yes
Yes
Yes

CUT-OFF-TIMES

SEPA Credit Transfer

SDD Core

SDD B2B

COT *

21:30 CET

08:00 CET

08:00 CET

Presentation day *

same day

D-6 / D-3 / D-2

first / one-off / recurrent

D-2

*under discussion

There is no multilateral interchange fee (MIF) per item in Slovakia.

ADDITIONAL OPTIONAL SERVICES
Migration of symbols to the E2E reference
If customers want to use for payment identification the variable, specific and constant symbols also in the new XML formats, they will
have to use the following Slovak convention /VS[N10]/SS[N10]/KS[N4] and enter these data into the E2E reference,
while
o

/VS[N10] is a variable symbol consisting of ten digits

/SS[N10] is a specific symbol consisting of ten digits

/KS[N4] - is a constant symbol consisting of four digits

st

The observance of this convention will ensure that also the customers, who will not convert to the XML standards since the 1 of
February 2014, can keep reconciling the payments according to the currently used symbols.

VALUE ADDED SERVICES

UniCredit Bank Slovakia a.s. is also able to provide you with additional value-added service, such as:

The conversion of the BBAN to the IBAN the bank will convert it on request of customers. The customers shall give to the
bank the BBANs in the .xls files and the bank will convert them to the IBANs.

SEPA Messages
UniCredit Bank Slovakia is supporting for customers these types of messages:
o

Pain.001 Customer Credit Transfer Initiation

Pain.008 - Customer Debit Initiation

Camt.052, Camt.053 - electronic account statements, Slovak national standard

[Link]
[Link]