Direct debit vs e-invoice

These are complimentary services as one is about a payment, the other is about information.

The benefit of Direct Debit is that it is a "Collection" rather than a "Receivable" for the biller/supplier/payee, so it is easy to reconcile, the timing is known and it is usually cleared funds.

E-Invoice is about moving away from paper, speeding the information exchange with the buyer/payer to either justify a collection or initiate a payer in making the payment.  However, the timing relationship between the e-invoice and the payment is not rigid and so there can be issues as to timing, reconciliation and cleared funds.

Geoff is absolutely correct! In my former country it has been trend about four- five years to change everything to e-invoice. Which is good but recently some of the banks finally has noticed that e-invoice itself is not a solution for some of the customers. 

I just spoke with third sector organization, where monthly recurring income comes in small streams of 5 € to 10 € contributions from individuals. They use to pay 0,01 or 0,05 € per transaction for banks. Now with SEPA DD they are asked to pay up to 0,90 € per transaction and same payment is also required from consumers. Making a business case. No way in H...  E-invoice itself is much more complicated and usually requires consumer to accept all payments. There is a plan where consumer is not required to accept small e-invoices, but it is still a plan, not solution. 

As far as I remember PSD directives around Mandate Management of SEPA Direct Debit, every SDD transaction MUST be accompanied by an invoice - whether paper-based or electronic. So, I really don't see Direct Debit and eInvoice as mutually exclusive.