EBA CLEARING starts countdown to pan-European instant payments
The testing phase comes ahead of November’s scheduled go-live of the pan-European instant payment infrastructure platform.
The testing phase comes ahead of November’s scheduled go-live of the pan-European instant payment infrastructure platform.
EBA CLEARING said that the testing phase has got underway for the payment infrastructure solutions provider’s pan-European instant payment (IP) system. The platform is scheduled to go live this November when the European Payments Council (EPC) launches its single euro payments area (SEPA) instant credit transfer scheme, aka SCT Inst.
A total of 28 funding institutions from across Europe were represented at a meeting in Milan to mark the start of the testing phase. The meeting included a demonstration of the functioning of the new system in the test environment run by EBA CLEARING’s technical solution provider, Italy’s SIA.
“The timely delivery of our instant payment system in the test environment is a key milestone on our journey towards the go-live of the service in November 2017,” said Hays Littlejohn, chief executive officer (CEO) of EBA CLEARING, who thanked participants for their “vital contribution to the successful implementation of this first version of this pan-European system.
“We now look forward to engaging the growing community of early movers and their trusted service providers in the pilot user tests that will follow our acceptance testing with SIA,” added Littlejohn. “The system will be open to any account-servicing payment service provider (AS-PSP) adhering to the EPC scheme. We will offer different options to interact with the system in order to ensure that any type of user from anywhere in Europe can access the platform.”
EBA CLEARING added that the new infrastructure platform will provide a real-time payment processing facility, which will be available 24/7 on any day of the year. AS-PSPs from across Europe will be able to use the “highly flexible solution” for any payment product in euro that will be fully compliant with the EPC’s SCT Inst scheme and in line with the ISO 20022 global messaging standards for real-time payments.
Founded in 1998 and owned by 52 major banks operating in Europe. EBA CLEARING manages two systemically important payment systems (SIPS), the large-value euro payment system EURO1 and STEP2, a pan-European payment infrastructure platform for mass payments in euro.