Euro payment infrastructure service provider EBA Clearing has signed a letter of intent with SIA to develop a pan-European real-time payments infrastructure solution by Q4 2017.
The solution is intended to be the first instant payment infrastructure service for financial institutions on a pan-European scale.
It will be able to handle any euro transactions that are in line with the instant payment definition and requirements formulated by the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB). It will also have the capability to support any real-time payment products offered in Europe.
The new solution will be in line with ISO 20022 global messaging standards, and compliant with the European Payments Council’ SCTInst Scheme, which is currently under development.
SIA will support EBA Clearing in creating and implementing the platform. The Italian payments processer specialises in designing, creating and managing technology infrastructures and services for both institutions and market infrastructure providers. It was selected after a request for proposals in October 2015.
It will be the second project that EBA Clearing and SIA work on together. They also collaborated to implement the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) platform, STEP2.
Hays Littlejohn, CEO of EBA Clearing, said: “Signing a letter of intent represents a significant milestone in our company’s journey towards delivering a pan-European infrastructure solution for instant payments, in co-operation with SIA.”
He added: “As a next step, we are now inviting interested payment service providers to join our initiative. We look forward to working with SIA and these pilot users on the development of a platform that can be used for instant payments both at a domestic and cross-border level.”
Massimo Arrighetti, CEO of SIA, said: “We are very pleased to be able to contribute our expertise and experience to this major infrastructure project for the European payments market.”
He continued: “We believe our international network of highly qualified and efficient specialists and our productive partnership with EBA Clearing are a winning combination for the delivery of an agile real-time infrastructure solution helping payment service providers to meet the evolving needs of European corporates and consumers.”
