The European Payments Council opened public consultation on five change requests to the SCT Inst scheme rulebook on March 13, 2026. The consultation document, designated EPC009-26, accepts stakeholder responses until June 11, 2026. Approved change requests will be incorporated into the updated rulebook, scheduled for publication in November 2026. All scheme participants must implement the approved changes by November 2027.
The first proposal expands the name field for originator, beneficiary, and reference parties from 70 to 140 characters. This aligns the SCT Inst scheme with the name field lengths specified in the 2019 ISO 20022 standard. A second change request proposes migrating the entire scheme to the latest available ISO 20022 message version. Together, these two proposals close a structural gap between the scheme's current message specifications and the governing standards.
Three remaining proposals address fraud handling and dispute resolution. The partial fraud recall change request would allow the beneficiary PSP to return whatever portion of the original amount remains, rather than requiring full recovery or nothing. A beneficiary-initiated repayment procedure would give recipients a formal channel to return funds without requiring the originator PSP to initiate a recall. Extended recall timelines for the Duplicate and Technical Reason categories would give PSPs additional processing time for legitimate recall requests.