Issuing a Mandate

The creditor initiates the issuance of a mandate by sending the mandate form (either paper or electronic) to the debtor with the creditor information filled in. The creditor information includes the creditor's unique identifier as a SEPA creditor. An ISO standard specifies the structure of the creditor identification, which includes country code, a check digit, the creditor's business code and a country-specific identifier for the creditor. The creditor ensures that the mandate form contains the mandatory legal wording and the mandatory set of information, as specified in the standards. The debtor must ensure that the required information is supplied and that the mandate is signed, either in writing or electronically. The mandatory debtor information includes the debtor's international bank account number (IBAN) and bank identifier code (BIC). The creditor assigns a unique reference for the mandate and provides that reference to the debtor before the first initiation of a collection. The debtor can then use both the unique mandate reference and the creditor identification to verify the bank transactions.