The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is a system of transactions created by the European Union (EU). The SEPA harmonizes the way cashless payments are transacted between Euro countries. People conducting business in these countries now make cross-border cashless payments at the same cost and convenience as domestic payments thanks to SEPA online payment method.The SEPA is managed by the European Payments Council on a collaborative basis with the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB), and other European stakeholder groups.There are 36 countries that participate in SEPA, which is a well-established home market area for making cross-border Euro bank transactions. It essentially makes international money transfers easier by making it equivalent to domestic transactions. This means that even if you’re transferring funds between two banks that are in different SEPA countries, you can enjoy a fast transaction and minimal transfer fee. Name Single Euro Payments Area. Implementation year 2014 for Euro area countries. 2016 for Non-Euro area countries. Currency Euro (€). Cashless payment instruments Credit transfer, direct debit. Speed of processing No longer than 1 business day for electronic payment orders, 2 business days for paper-based payment orders. SEPA area countries 36 countries (includes some non-euro area and non-EU countries). Stakeholders European banking and payments industry, payment service users, national governments, the European Commission, the Eurosystem, and several other public authorities. Even if you don’t live in the SEPA area countries, you can still open a non-resident virtual bank account with an International Bank Account (IBAN) in Europe and be able to make Euro transfers without a fee if it’s an internal bank transfer (same bank), and small fee if it’s a transfer between different SEPA bank accounts.IBAN (International Bank Account Number) is an internationally agreed system of identifying bank accounts across national borders to facilitate the communication and processing of cross border transactions with a lower chance of transcription errors. It was originally adopted by the European Committee for Banking Standards (ECBS) and afterwards as an international standard.An IBAN consists of up to 34 alphanumeric characters comprising a country code, two check digits, and a number that includes the domestic bank account number, branch identifier, and potential routing information.