SEPA payments are often positioned as a standardized, frictionless way to send and receive money across Europe. While that’s partially true, the user experience behind SEPA is anything but standardized.
In practice, SEPA payments can be initiated in three distinct ways — and not all users prefer the same method.
Understanding these flows — and giving your customers a choice — is critical for maximizing conversion.
🎯 The Three Ways to Pay via SEPA
Let’s break down the three SEPA payment initiation methods most relevant to European businesses and consumers:
1️⃣ PIS (Payment Initiation Services – Open Banking)
This method allows customers to initiate a SEPA payment directly from their bank account, usually via API-driven Open Banking rails. It’s fast, secure, and regulation-friendly.
But here’s the catch:
👉 PIS currently accounts for only ~30% of SEPA payment traffic in the market.
Despite its efficiency, many users either don’t trust, aren’t familiar with, or can’t access their bank’s Open Banking interface — leading to drop-offs at checkout.
2️⃣ Manual SEPA Transfer (Copy/Paste Method)
This is the traditional route: the customer receives an IBAN and reference code, opens their banking app or portal, and manually inputs the payment details.
While it may sound outdated, manual SEPA remains widely used, especially in B2B transactions and in regions where Open Banking adoption lags.
The downside? It’s slower and prone to human error, but it’s familiar and works everywhere.
3️⃣ EPC QR Code (European Payments Council Standard)
The newest and fastest-growing option: generate a QR code containing all payment details (IBAN, amount, reference) which customers scan using their banking app.
Perfect for mobile users and increasingly popular in both retail and digital billing contexts, this method reduces friction and input errors, leading to higher completion rates.
🚫 Where Most Payment Providers Fail
Despite these clear differences in user behavior and preferences, most SEPA-focused PSPs only support Open Banking (PIS).
This is often driven by:
- A desire to streamline back-office operations
- The misconception that PIS is enough
- Limited technical capacity to support multi-flow processing
But if only 30% of users complete payments through PIS, what happens to the other 70%?
👉 They abandon checkout.
👉 They contact support.
👉 They look for alternative providers.
That’s a conversion killer.
🛠️ How Yowpay Covers the Entire SEPA Payment Tunnel
Yowpay was designed from day one to optimize conversion — not just process payments.
🔄 Full SEPA Coverage in One Unified Flow:
- ✅ Open Banking PIS – seamless for those who prefer instant API-based payments
- ✅ Manual SEPA – works anywhere, ideal for cautious or traditional users
- ✅ EPC QR Code – mobile-friendly and built for fast checkout
This means customers can choose the method they trust most, all from a single interface — without friction, redirects, or multiple systems.
🚀 Why This Matters:
- 📈 Higher checkout completion rates
- 📉 Reduced support overhead from failed or misunderstood payments
- 💡 Better alignment with user preferences across Europe
Yowpay doesn’t force users into a single path — it provides a conversion-optimized payment tunnel that adapts to real behavior.
📊 The Real Competitive Advantage
Businesses that offer only one payment method are unintentionally excluding users.
By contrast, companies using Yowpay are:
- 🧠 Respecting user choice
- 💸 Accelerating payment success
- 🔄 Improving reconciliation and accounting accuracy
Whether you’re in e-commerce, B2B services, subscription billing, or digital platforms, this approach directly impacts revenue.
🔚 Rethinking SEPA as a Checkout Experience — Not Just a Bank Transfer
SEPA is often seen as a backend process — a bank talking to another bank.
But in reality, it’s part of your user experience. And like all UX elements, the smoother it is, the higher your conversion.
That’s why Yowpay is redefining SEPA checkout — not by changing the rails, but by optimizing how users interact with them.
Don’t leave 70% of your customers behind.
Give them a choice. Give them Yowpay.