On 28 June 2023, the European Commission published that PSD2 still resulted in an unlevel playing field for payment service providers (PSPs), “due partly to the lack of direct access by non-bank [PSPs] to certain key systems that are necessary to finalise payments.”
Specifically, non-bank PSPs weren’t able to directly access the SEPA scheme of payments. They also couldn’t directly access TARGET2, which is the intrabank RTGS (real-time gross settlement) scheme.
“This changed in 2025, and non-bank PSPs can now access SEPA schemes directly,” says Asta Meskereviciute, Co-Founder of Inventi, a SaaS company that provides direct access to SEPA, TARGET2, and SWIFT through a single API.
Last chance: Get your tickets for Baltic Fintech Days May 13
Direct vs. indirect access, pros & cons
Before the regulatory change, PSPs could only be indirect SEPA participants and needed a sponsor bank to access SEPA payments.
Now, obtaining direct SEPA access gives the PSP the ability to:
- Issue its own IBANs, using the country code of any country it’s licensed in.
- Do its own risk assessment of customers, allowing it to serve sectors that a bank’s risk appetite might not allow.
- Reduce dependency risk and improve business continuity by avoiding single points of failure where a sponsor can block, change terms, or deprioritise.
- Keep costs more predictable at scale by controlling the setup as volumes grow.
When you work through a sponsor bank, you’re at the mercy of that bank’s risk monitoring, KYC/KYB procedures, and rules. For those trying to scale, that dependency can become a real constraint because your product ends up shaped by someone else’s rules and risk appetite.
Being able to use its own IBANs means fintech can prevent IBAN discrimination for its customers. Even though the Bank of Lithuania or the Bank of Latvia provides access, a fintech can issue an IBAN from any country in which it has a license.
“Another issue is that sponsor bank instant SEPA transfers sometimes aren’t so instant, taking minutes instead of seconds,” says Asta. “Having your own connection means you control that.”
That’s where Inventi comes in, handling the integration and the day-to-day rails work.
Two central banks in Europe provide direct SEPA access with instant payments enabled in weeks
CENTROlink, the national payment system by the Bank of Lithuania, supports 140 customers and all SEPA schemes. EKS, the national payment system by the Bank of Latvia, launched in 2025 and has already onboarded 13 non-bank PSPs. Today, these are the two central banks providing direct SEPA access to non-bank participants, including SEPA Instant and Direct Debit, says Asta.
“Even though every EU regulator should allow direct SEPA access, the technology either doesn’t exist to do it, or the regulator hasn’t implemented SEPA Instant yet,” says Asta, citing Malta as a country that does allow direct access but doesn’t support SEPA Instant.
Last chance: Get your tickets for Baltic Fintech Days May 13
Inventi onboards customers in 1.5 weeks
“Last year, at Baltic Fintech Days, I told people that we could get them up and running on SEPA directly in three weeks. They didn’t believe me. Now, when I tell them we do it in 1.5 weeks, they think I’m delusional, but I have the data to prove it,” says Asta.
The 1.5-week timespan refers to the time it takes from initial signup to the point that Inventi submits the testing report to the central bank. Once submitted, a waiting period follows because fintechs can only go live according to predefined dates set by the European Payment Council calendar.
“Doing it in-house typically takes six months or more,” says Asta.
Since 2011, Inventi has handled direct integration for numerous large players, including Brite in Sweden, Payabl in Cyprus, Paynovate from Belgium, Ria from Spain, TransferGo in Lithuania and the UK, and Guru Pay in Lithuania.
“We’re extremely proud of the companies using our SaaS, and it makes us work harder to deliver the best functionality. Direct SEPA integration isn’t a simple service,” says Asta.
