March 2024

Becoming an NPC Scheme Participant

Are you wondering how to adhere to the schemes? This guide provides detailed guidelines for applicants wishing to adhere to one or more of the NPC managed payment schemes:

Are you looking for the relevant materials to guide the implementation in your systems? Find out more here:

Becoming a Participant in the Scheme involves signing the Adherence Agreement. In order to be a Participant it is required to be a NPC Scheme Member or to have been approved by the NPC’s Board of Directors as meeting the eligibility requirements in the NPC Bylaws for a NPC Non-Member Participant. By signing the Adherence Agreement, Participants agree to comply with the Rulebook and such other related documents as described in section 5 in the Rulebook.

The following picture will guide you through the main steps to become an scheme participant:

 

For each scheme to which the applicant wishes to adhere, these template documents have to be completed and signed.

  • Adherence Agreement, which summaries the main information submitted by the PSP and formalises the PSP’s participation.
  • The schedule information document, in which the applicant specifies its contact details and foreseen reachability date.

The NPC Credit Transfer Rulebook has introduced the Extended Remittance Information (ERI) as an optional feature in the NCT scheme which caters for the transmission of a large volume of structured Remittance Information (RI) within a single NPC Credit Transfer Instruction that has a specific value for the Beneficiary or leads to a swift settlement of several payment obligations for the Originator.

Applicants that wish to adhere to the ERI-option also need to complete and sign these documents.

  • Adherence Agreement for Extended Remittance Information (ERI), which summaries the main information submitted by the PSP and formalises the PSP’s participation for ERI-option.
  • The schedule information to the ERI Adherence Agreement document, in which the participant specifies its contact details and foreseen reachability date.

The Adherence documents can be sent in:

  • Directly to NPC, at contact address info@npcouncil.org
  • Or via the PSP’s National Adherence Support Organisation (NASO – usually the national banking association).

A NASO is responsible for providing basic guidance on the adherence process and on adherence applications through a helpdesk, for liaising with the Secretariat in respect of an application (as requested by the applicant) and for such other tasks as the NPC may request it to perform from time to time. A NASO also carries out a basic preliminary review of an adherence application, if requested by the applicant to do so.

This is the name and contact address for the NASOs in the Nordics:
Denmark - Finance Denmark - naso-finance-denmark@fida.dk
Finland - Finance Finland - naso@finanssiala.fi
Norway - Bits AS - naso@bits.no
Sweden - Swedish Bankers' Association - naso@bankforeningen.se

Timeline for Scheme Adherence

NPC will start the process with adhering participants to our Schemes during 2023.

To be able to adhere to any of the NPC Schemes the participant need to have an operational readiness date for when the participant (at least) is be able to receive and process payments according to the NPC Scheme chosen.

Going forward NPC will have a calendar with deadlines for when Adherence agreements needs to be submitted, when the participant will be registered and operation readiness.

When NPC starts to adhere participants during 2023 this will be done on an ongoing basis, to make sure all participants are ready by their operational readiness date.

Useful documentation needed to implement the NPC Schemes:

If you have further questions, please contact the NPC (info@npcouncil.org) for assistance.