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+.. _wireformats:
+
+Wire Transfer Methods
+=====================
+
+A wire transfer is essential for the exchange to transfer funds into a merchant's
+account upon a successful deposit (see :ref:`deposit request <deposit>`).  The
+merchant has to include the necessary information for the exchange to initiate the
+wire transfer.
+
+The information required for wire transfer depends on the method of wire transfer
+used.  Since the wire transfers differ for each region, we document here the
+ones currently supported by the exchange.
+
+X-TALER-BANK
+------------
+
+The "x-taler-bank" wire format is used for testing and for integration with Taler's
+simple "bank" system which in the future might be useful to setup a bank
+for a local / regional currency or accounting system.  Using the @code{x-taler-bank}
+wire method in combination with the Taler's bank, it is thus possible to
+fully test the Taler system without using "real" currencies.  The URL
+format for "x-taler-bank" is simple, in that it only specifies an account
+number and the URL of the bank:
+
+  *  payto://x-taler-bank/BANK_URI/ACCOUNT_NUMBER
+
+The account number given must be a positive 53-bit integer.  As with
+any payto://-URI, additional fields may be present (after a ?), but
+are not required.  The BANK_URI may include a port number. If none is
+given, @code{https} over port 443 is assumed.  If a port number is
+given, @code{http} over the given port is to be used.  Note that this
+means that you cannot run an x-taler-bank over @code{https} on a
+non-canonical port.
+
+Note that a particular exchange is usually only supporting one
+particular bank with the "x-taler-bank" wire format, so it is not
+possible for a merchant with an account at a different bank to use
+"x-taler-bank" to transfer funds across banks. After all, this is for
+testing and not for real banking.
+
+The "x-taler-bank" method is implemented by the @code{taler_bank} plugin.
+
+
+SEPA
+----
+
+The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) [#sepa]_ is a regulation for electronic
+payments.  Since its adoption in 2012, all of the banks in the Eurozone and some
+banks in other countries adhere to this standard for sending and receiving
+payments.  Note that the currency of the transfer will (currently) always be *EUR*.  In
+case the receiving account is in a currency other than EURO, the receiving bank
+may covert the amount into that currency; currency exchange charges may be
+levied by the receiving bank.
+
+For the merchant to receive deposits through SEPA, the deposit request must
+follow the payto:// specification for SEPA:
+
+  *  payto://sepa/IBAN
+
+
+The implementation of the @code{ebics} plugin which is envisioned to
+support the @code{sepa} method is currently incomplete.  Specifically,
+we need a working implementation of `libebics` which is a sub-project
+trying to implement the EBICS [#ebics]_ standard.
+
+.. [#sepa] SEPA - Single Euro Payments Area:
+           http://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/sepa/html/index.en.html
+.. [#ebics] EBCIS - European Banking Computer Interface Standard
+          http://www.ebics.org/