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Modulr glossary

SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area)

The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is a European Union initiative to simplify euro payments across member states. It enables businesses and consumers to make cashless euro payments to any account within the SEPA zone. Modulr helps customers sending and receiving up to 100,000 Euros across the 36 countries in the SEPA zone, through access to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) on both SEPA Instant and SEPA Credit Transfer. This access is 24/7/365 and payments can complete in under 10 seconds. With local IBANs in The Netherlands, Ireland, Spain and France, Modulr customers experience higher rates of payment acceptance, so they can move their money reliably.

Applications

E-commerce:

Reduces fraud in online card payments by verifying the cardholder's identity

Banking and fintech:

Helps issuers and payment providers comply with Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements.

Advantages

  • Enhanced security: Reduces unauthorised transactions by verifying that the genuine account holder is authorising the payment
  • Fraud prevention: Helps reduce chargebacks related to fraud.

Challenges

  • User Experience: Additional authentication steps can cause friction and increase checkout abandonment
  • Implementation complexity: Requires integration with card schemes and issuer systems.

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