Creditor Identifier (CI) — What Is the SEPA Creditor Identifier?

In SEPA, on the transfer side (SEPA Credit Transfer) the party sending the money initiates the transaction. On the direct debit side (SEPA Direct Debit — SDD) it is the opposite: the creditor pulls the money from the debtor's account. In this reverse flow a critical question of trust arises: "Exactly who is this organisation that is collecting from my account?" The machine-readable answer to this question is precisely the Creditor Identifier (CI). This page explains what the CI is, how it is structured, how the check digit is calculated and its role within the mandate.

What exactly is a Creditor Identifier?

A Creditor Identifier is a fixed code that identifies a creditor doing collections in the SEPA Direct Debit scheme in a nationally unique way. Whatever bank or IBAN a creditor uses for collection, the SEPA system always recognises it by the same CI. In this way the debtor can trace which organisation a collection seen on the account statement came from; and banks and payment infrastructures can consistently match the creditor in the authorisation (mandate) check, refund and dispute processes.

The CI is assigned to the creditor through the competent body in the relevant country (usually the central bank or an institution designated by that country). Once assigned, it works like the creditor's "identity card" and is expected to remain unchanged throughout the collection relationship. The CI has a common structure defined in the EPC (European Payments Council) SDD rulebooks; this structure works with the same logic in all SEPA countries.

The structure of the CI: four parts

The Creditor Identifier consists of four logical sections from left to right. The table below summarises the positions and their meanings:

The generic format example used in the EPC documentation looks like this: DE98ZZZ09999999999. Let us read the parts from left to right: DE the country code (Germany), 98 the check digit, ZZZ the default business code and 09999999999 the national creditor identifier. This is not a real CI; it is only a format example showing how the structure is laid out. A real CI is assigned by the competent body of the relevant country, and no real number is shared on this page.

How is the check digit calculated?

The check digit (positions 3–4) is a checksum value used to catch errors that may occur when writing the CI. The calculation logic is similar to the MOD-97 method in the IBAN and is based on the ISO 7064 standard. The summary steps:

1. The business code is excluded. In the calculation, the three-character business code at positions 5–7 (ZZZ etc.) is not taken into account. Only the national creditor identifier and the country code are used.
2. The country code and, temporarily, "00" are appended to the end of the national identifier (with the same logic of moving the country code + check digit as in the IBAN).
3. Letters are converted to numbers (A=10, B=11 … Z=35) and the remainder of dividing the resulting large number by 97 is found; the operation 98 − (remainder) gives the two-digit check digit.

The most important consequence of this method is this: because the business code is not included in the calculation, when a creditor with the same national identifier changes its business code to a value other than ZZZ, the check digit does not change. That is, DE98ZZZ... and DE98ABC... can carry the same valid check digit. To check structurally whether a CI complies with this rule, you can use our Creditor ID validation tool — this tool runs entirely in the browser and checks only formal/mathematical validity; it does not prove that the CI has actually been assigned to an organisation and is active.

CI ≠ IBAN and CI ≠ BIC

The Creditor Identifier is often confused with the IBAN or the BIC; yet all three identify entirely different things:

• IBAN identifies a bank account. A creditor can have several IBANs; all are different. In a collection, both the debtor's account and the creditor's account are shown with an IBAN.
• BIC (SWIFT code) identifies a bank/branch; it shows which institution processes the payment.
• Creditor Identifier, on the other hand, is neither an account nor a bank — it identifies the collecting creditor organisation itself. Even if the creditor changes its bank or account, its CI stays the same.

In short: IBAN is the answer to "from which account the money", BIC to "through which bank", and CI to "who is collecting". In an SDD collection message these three appear together and meet different functions.

Its relationship with the mandate and the UMR

The Creditor Identifier alone is not enough; it gains its real power together with the mandate (authorisation document) and the UMR (Unique Mandate Reference).

A mandate is the document with which the debtor gives the creditor permission to "collect from my account by direct debit". On every mandate two identifiers appear: the creditor's CI and the UMR specific to that authorisation. The CI answers "which creditor", the UMR "which authorisation of that creditor". This pair together uniquely identifies each collection relationship and, being carried in every SDD collection message, allows banks to verify the authorisation.

To see which fields are required when creating an SDD mandate and to prepare a sample mandate layout, you can use our SEPA Direct Debit mandate generator tool. You can find the place of direct debit within the SEPA schemes and its difference from SCT on the SEPA schemes page.

Note on Turkey

A Creditor Identifier is assigned, through the competent body in that country, to creditors operating in countries within the SEPA geographic scope and participating in the SEPA Direct Debit scheme. Turkey is not currently a SEPA member; its participation process is at the candidate/application stage. For this reason Turkish organisations are not assigned a Creditor Identifier based on the EPC scheme, and domestic collection by SEPA Direct Debit cannot be done in Turkey. For Turkey's accession to SEPA and its possible effects you can review the Turkey and SEPA page. This situation will be updated as the participation process becomes clearer.

Summary

The Creditor Identifier is the identity that uniquely identifies the creditor doing the collection in a SEPA direct debit. It consists of a country code, a MOD-97 check digit, a business code (default ZZZ) and a national creditor identifier; the check digit is calculated excluding the business code. An IBAN identifies an account, a BIC a bank, and a CI the creditor itself. Appearing in the mandate together with the UMR, it makes each collection authorisation unique. The information on this page is for informational purposes; the binding rules are defined in the European Payments Council's SDD rulebooks in force and can be updated over time.