The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), is a Europe-wide initiative that allows businesses and individuals to make and receive cross-border euro payments. Since 1 February 2014, all countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) have also been members of the SEPA zone, making domestic transfers and cross-border euro transactions more standardized. As of May 2025, there are currently 41 countries in the SEPA zone, including many non-EU countries.

This article provides a comprehensive list of SEPA countries and explains the benefits of SEPA credit transfers. Discover how it can help businesses and customers manage financial transactions more effectively.

What’s in this article?

• What is the SEPA zone?
  
• List of SEPA countries
  
• Which countries are not in the SEPA zone?
  
• Benefits of the SEPA zone
  
• Is Switzerland in the SEPA zone?
  
• Is the UK in the SEPA zone?
  
• How Stripe Payments can help
  

What is the SEPA zone?

SEPA is a Europe-wide payment network that allows customers and businesses to make fast, secure cross-border bank transactions. The SEPA zone was established to support the European Union’s (EU) single market by making euro-denominated payments more efficient across borders.

The SEPA zone allows customers and businesses to make credit transfers throughout Europe in seconds. With a few exceptions – such as in Switzerland and the UK – no currency conversion is required, and all transactions are easily carried out via online banking. It ensures that individuals and businesses can transfer funds easily, securely, and efficiently within Europe.

SEPA payment schemes include SEPA Credit Transfers (SCT), SEPA Direct Debits (SDD), and SEPA Instant Payments (SCT Inst), allowing for near-instant transfers.

Overall, customers and businesses benefit from more efficient payment transactions and easier management of domestic and international transfers. This makes the SEPA zone an important step toward a unified Europe in which credit transfers can be made without restrictions. Learn more about SEPA Direct Debit payments here.

List of SEPA countries

There are 41 countries in the SEPA zone, including all EU member states.

All 27 EU member states (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden) are SEPA countries.

The SEPA zone also includes three EEA countries (Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein), and 11 non-EEA countries that are now included after the geographical scope was extended: Albania, Andorra, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, San Marino, Serbia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Vatican City State.

The SEPA zone allows customers and businesses to make cross-border credit transfers and direct debit payments in euros as easily and securely as domestic transactions. The Europe-wide standardised procedures for cashless payment transactions can be used in all of these countries.

Which countries are not in the SEPA zone?

Although SEPA covers most of Europe, some countries are not part of it, such as the Danish Faroe Islands and Greenland.

Kosovo and Montenegro also use the euro as their national currency, but they are not part of the SEPA zone.

For this reason, it’s important for businesses and customers to understand and pay attention to which countries are not currently part of the SEPA zone, as there may be different regulations for each country.

There are also some countries that use an IBAN but are not members of SEPA, such as Belarus, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates.

Benefits of the SEPA zone

The SEPA zone makes transfer and direct debits within Europe faster, easier, and more cost-effective. The standardised SEPA credit transfers and SEPA Direct Debits help businesses work more effectively by reducing costs for cross-border transactions and increasing transparency for customers and banks.

Here are the key benefits of the SEPA zone:

• Faster transaction processing: Transfers are processed within one banking day, improving cash flow for businesses.
  
• Standardised bank details: Every recipient has the correct bank account details, ensuring transactions are completed on time without redirections.
  
• Stronger consumer protection: Stricter guidelines for customer complaints and chargeback options make dispute resolution more efficient.
  
• Unified banking regulations: Eliminates different national regulations, making it easier for businesses to expand across Europe.
  
• IBAN and BIC standardisation: The International Bank Account Number (IBAN) and Bank Identifier Code (BIC) can be used for all domestic and international credit transfers, removing the need for multiple forms.
  
• Increased banking competition: With all banks in the SEPA zone following the same standards, customers have more options, leading to competitive pricing and better services.
  
• No cross-border transfer fees: Businesses and customers avoid extra fees for transactions between SEPA countries.
  
• Enhanced security measures: SEPA members must comply with strict security standards to prevent fraud, ensuring all transactions follow the SEPA Regulation’s legal framework.
  

By unifying the European payments market, the SEPA zone creates a seamless, secure, and efficient banking environment for businesses and individuals alike.

Is Switzerland in the SEPA zone?

Yes, Switzerland has been a member of the SEPA zone since 2015. Swiss businesses and individuals have also been able to enjoy the benefits of SEPA payment transactions, including faster, simplified cross-border payments and less effort when processing SEPA credit transfers or SEPA Direct Debits. SEPA transfers to Switzerland are usually free of charge but may be subject to currency conversion fees.

Is the UK in the SEPA zone?

The UK is still a member of the SEPA zone, even after leaving the European Union (EU) on 1 February 2021. The UK was already a member of the SEPA zone and remains one because SEPA members aren’t required to be in the EU. Most banking service providers in the UK continue to offer cross-border transfer services within the SEPA zone.

How Stripe Payments can help

Stripe Payments provides a unified, global payments solution that helps any business – from scaling startups to global enterprises – accept payments online, in person, and around the world.

Stripe Payments can help you:

• Optimise your checkout experience: Create a frictionless customer experience and save thousands of engineering hours with pre-built payment UIs and access to 100+ payment methods, including those that require ABA routing numbers. From electronic transfers to ACH Direct Debits, integration is simple.
  
• Reconcile payments automatically: Make it easier to reconcile payments that use ABA routing numbers with an automatic reconciliation engine that uses virtual bank accounts for each customer and tools for troubleshooting.
  
• Manage refunds easily: Make refunds or return excess funds, even for bank transfers.
  
• Expand to new markets faster: Reach customers worldwide and reduce the complexity and cost of multicurrency management with cross-border payment options, available in 195 countries across 135+ currencies.
  
• Improve payments performance: Increase revenue with a range of customisable, easy-to-configure payment tools, including no-code fraud protection and advanced capabilities to improve authorisation rates.
  
• Move faster with a flexible, reliable platform for growth: Build on a platform designed to scale with you, with 99.999% uptime and industry-leading reliability.
  

Learn more about how Stripe Payments can power your online and in-person payments, or get started today.