SEPA XML Examples — pain.001 & pain.008 Sample Files

A collection of sample SEPA XML files for developers, testers, and integrators working with European payment systems. All files follow the ISO 20022 standard and are compatible with CBI (Corporate Banking Interbancario) Italian banking requirements.

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Included Files

File	Format	Description
pain001-single-sct.xml	pain.001.001.03	Single SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) — one payment from debtor to creditor
pain001-batch-sct.xml	pain.001.001.03	Batch SEPA Credit Transfer — 3 payments to different creditors in one file
pain008-sdd-core.xml	pain.008.001.02	SEPA Direct Debit (SDD CORE) — collection from a debtor's account

All files use realistic Italian-style data (IT IBANs, EUR currency, Italian company names) with fictional entities.

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File Format Reference

pain.001.001.03 — Customer Credit Transfer Initiation

The pain.001 format is used to instruct banks to execute credit transfers (bonifici). The XML structure consists of:

<Document>
  └── <CstmrCdtTrfInitn>           # Root element
        ├── <GrpHdr>                # Group Header (message ID, creation date, number of transactions)
        └── <PmtInf>               # Payment Information (debtor details, execution date)
              └── <CdtTrfTxInf>    # Credit Transfer Transaction (creditor, amount, remittance info)

• Namespace: urn:iso:std:iso:20022:tech:xsd:pain.001.001.03
• Key fields: MsgId (unique message ID), ReqdExctnDt (execution date), InstdAmt (amount), IBAN (account numbers)

pain.008.001.02 — Customer Direct Debit Initiation

The pain.008 format is used for direct debit collections (addebiti diretti SEPA). The structure is similar but includes mandate information:

<Document>
  └── <CstmrDrctDbtInitn>          # Root element
        ├── <GrpHdr>                # Group Header
        └── <PmtInf>               # Payment Information (creditor details)
              └── <DrctDbtTxInf>   # Direct Debit Transaction (debtor, mandate, amount)

• Namespace: urn:iso:std:iso:20022:tech:xsd:pain.008.001.02
• Key fields: MndtId (mandate ID), DtOfSgntr (mandate signature date), SeqTp (FRST/RCUR/FNAL/OOFF)

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How to Use

Load in Python

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

tree = ET.parse("examples/pain001-single-sct.xml")
root = tree.getroot()

# Define namespace
ns = {"pain": "urn:iso:std:iso:20022:tech:xsd:pain.001.001.03"}

# Extract payment info
for tx in root.findall(".//pain:CdtTrfTxInf", ns):
    amount = tx.find("pain:Amt/pain:InstdAmt", ns).text
    creditor = tx.find("pain:Cdtr/pain:Nm", ns).text
    iban = tx.find("pain:CdtrAcct/pain:Id/pain:IBAN", ns).text
    print(f"Pay {amount} EUR to {creditor} ({iban})")

Validate XML Schema

from lxml import etree

# Load XSD schema (download from ISO 20022 website)
schema = etree.XMLSchema(etree.parse("pain.001.001.03.xsd"))
doc = etree.parse("examples/pain001-single-sct.xml")

if schema.validate(doc):
    print("Valid SEPA XML file")
else:
    print("Validation errors:", schema.error_log)

Quick Check with xmllint

xmllint --noout --schema pain.001.001.03.xsd examples/pain001-single-sct.xml

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Related Resources

Maintained by Synaptica Solution, Italian software studio for SME automation.

If you need…	See…
Automated pain.001 generation from invoices	SEPA Manager
Technical guide: SEPA XML structure for Italian banks	Come generare XML SEPA CBI
Difference XML SDI vs XML SEPA	Differenza XML SDI vs XML SEPA
All open source tools	Open Source Hub

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

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Made by Synaptica Solution — AI & Process Automation for Italian SMEs