A Direct Debit mandate is the written permission (typically from a consumer) to take payments from their bank account. Payments cannot be collected until the mandate has been signed and agreed by the consumer. This mandate can be held in the form of digital document and the use of a digital signature is possible but not part of our current functionality.

Within Europe Direct Debits are mostly processed as a SEPA Direct Debit. Both the debit process and the mandate are specified and regulated by the European Commission. A SEPA Direct Debit Mandate is the authorization given by your customer allowing you to collect future payments from them at any time on their Euro-denominated bank account (subject to advance notice). Each mandate must include certain mandatory legal wording and mandatory information (see for example here for more information).

Within our platform, Direct Debit mandates are processed as a type of token to represent the mandate within our system. Taking a Direct Debit payment using such a mandate is submitted as a normal payment with token request.