EBA Clearing and KIR Establish Interoperability for SEPA
EBA Clearing and KIR have announced they are cooperating to establish interoperability between KIR’s EuroELIXIR platform and the STEP2 single euro payments area (SEPA) Credit Transfer (SCT) service for the processing of SEPA payments. KIR will provide the users of its clearing systems with a link to the STEP2 platform, which will enable the Polish banking community to exchange SEPA payments with banks in 31 European countries. A Memorandum of Understanding reflecting the roles and objectives of this link between EuroElixir and STEP2 was signed by the two organisations in early January. The link between the two platforms is due to be put in place for the start of SEPA on 28 January 2008. Financial institutions using this link will have the choice to either settle their obligations themselves or to appoint another bank as their settlement bank. KIR has facilitated the use of STEP2 Services in Poland since May 2005 when the company started to technically support the National Bank of Poland in providing entry point services to the Polish banks for the STEP2 Credeuro (XCT) Service. The interoperability between EuroElixir and the STEP2 SEPA CT service will take the cooperation between the two companies further, as it allows KIR users to benefit from EBA Clearing’s position as a pan-European ACH (PE-ACH) for SEPA payments in 31 European countries. Conversely, the link supports the reach of STEP2 in Poland. So far, EBA Clearing has established links between STEP2 and 15 local platforms in 12 SEPA countries.