10 October 2017

SWIFTNet Instant to provide access to EBA CLEARING's RT1 system

Latest partnership helps maximize instant payments access for the European financial community

Brussels, 10 October 2017 – SWIFT and EBA CLEARING today announced that users of EBA CLEARING’s instant payment system, RT1, will be able to access the platform via SWIFTNet Instant from November 2018. The SWIFT solution will address all RT1 customer requirements, including instant messaging, file transfers and a browse solution.  

Erwin Kulk, Head of Service Development and Management, EBA CLEARING, said: “RT1 will provide the European payments industry with a pan-European infrastructure platform for real-time payments in euro from day one of the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer Scheme. We expect to see close to 30 joiners for the go-live on 21 November 2017 and more than 50 users in the system by mid-2018. We are pleased that SWIFT’s instant payments solution will become available to RT1 participants from November 2018 on, providing the user community with additional choice in terms of connectivity options.”  

SWIFT’s instant payments solution is designed to work anywhere in Europe and around the world, enabling SWIFT customers to connect seamlessly to multiple instant payment clearing and settlement mechanisms. For the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), SWIFT has already agreed to offer connectivity to EBA CLEARING’s RT1 system and to the Eurosystem’s TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) platform. As announced in June, SWIFT will support delivery of the future Eurosystem vision of a single gateway to Eurosystem market Infrastructure services and access to other clearing and settlement mechanisms.

Alain Raes, Chief Executive of Europe, Middle East & Africa, SWIFT, said: “Europe is taking important steps to ensure its lead in the instant payments area and we are pleased to be able to connect our customers to such critical infrastructures. Our solution is future-proofed to meet the current and future messaging needs of our customers in Europe and those in the rest of the world."

The solution for European customers is the next step in SWIFT’s global instant payments strategy, which began in 2015 when SWIFT was awarded the contract to build the messaging infrastructure to underpin Australia’s new payments platform, NPPA. In August this year, SWIFT announced that it will provide US financial institutions with a gateway to The Clearing House’s real-time payments platform. SWIFT is providing a similar solution to participants to Hong Kong’s Faster Payments System (FPS).

The pan-European infrastructure platform RT1 will be used for the 24/7 settlement of real-time payments in line with the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) Scheme of the European Payments Council (EPC). Together with 39 funding institutions, EBA CLEARING has been developing and implementing RT1 since April 2016. The objective was to provide payment service providers across SEPA with a real-time payment processing facility operating around the clock on any day of the year. RT1 is scheduled to go live on 21 November 2017.

RT1 will be open to any account-servicing payment provider (AS-PSP) adhering to the EPC SCT Inst Scheme. The platform has been conceived as a network-agnostic system, meaning that users can rely on different network solutions, provided they have been introduced at platform and user level in line with the necessary security requirements. 

The availability of SWIFTNet Instant for connecting to RT1 adds another chapter to the long-standing successful partnership between SWIFT and EBA CLEARING, which dates back to the launch of the high-value payment service, EURO1, in January 1999; SWIFT provides the messaging layer and operates the settlement system on behalf of EBA CLEARING. SWIFT also provides the messaging layer to STEP2, the pan-European Automated Clearing House, which processes euro retail payments, and links the system with Target2 for liquidity transfers.

The industry’s move to instant payments and the European Single MI Gateway will require significant infrastructure and operational change. SWIFT is committed to supporting its community in this important transformation.

Carlo Palmers, Head of Market Infrastructures, SWIFT, said: “Through other European developments such as EURO1, T2 and T2S, we have clearly demonstrated our ability to deliver mission critical industry projects. We will make instant payments simple and seamless for our customers, who will be able to reuse the investment they have made already. For new customers, we will offer complete on-boarding services to reduce risk and manage costs.

Join the instant payments discussion at Sibos in Toronto.

 

About SWIFT

SWIFT is a global member owned cooperative and the world’s leading provider of secure financial messaging services. We provide our community with a platform for messaging and standards for communicating, and we offer products and services to facilitate access and integration, identification, analysis and regulatory compliance. Our messaging platform, products and services connect more than 11,000 banking and securities organisations, market infrastructures and corporate customers in more than 200 countries and territories. While SWIFT does not hold funds or manage accounts on behalf of customers, we enable our global community of users to communicate securely, exchanging standardised financial messages in a reliable way, thereby supporting global and local financial flows, as well as trade and commerce all around the world. As their trusted provider, we relentlessly pursue operational excellence; we support our community in addressing cyber threats; and we continually seek ways to lower costs, reduce risks and eliminate operational inefficiencies. Our products and services support our community’s access and integration, business intelligence, reference data and financial crime compliance needs. SWIFT also brings the financial community together – at global, regional and local levels – to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest or concern. Headquartered in Belgium, SWIFT’s international governance and oversight reinforces the neutral, global character of its cooperative structure. SWIFT’s global office network ensures an active presence in all the major financial centres.

For more information, visit www.swift.com or follow us on Twitter: @swiftcommunity and LinkedIn: SWIFT

PRESS CONTACT:           
Chatsworth Communications
Tel: +44 (0)20 74409780
swift@chatsworthcommunications.com

 

About EBA CLEARING

EBA CLEARING is a provider of pan-European payment infrastructure solutions. Founded in 1998, the Company is owned by 52 of the major banks operating in Europe and based on a country-neutral governance model. The payment systems of EBA CLEARING are pan-European by design and desire: they are developed in close co-operation with the Company’s multinational user community and best-of-breed technology partners.

EBA CLEARING manages two Systemically Important Payment Systems, the large-value euro payment system EURO1 and STEP2, a pan-European payment infrastructure platform for mass payments in euro, which provides full reach to all financial institutions across Europe processing credit transfers and direct debits in euro. This means that more than 4,800 financial institutions in all SEPA countries are currently reachable via STEP2.

For more information on EBA CLEARING, please visit www.ebaclearing.eu, or follow the Company on www.twitter.com/ebaclearing or https://www.linkedin.com/company/eba-clearing.

EBA CLEARING at Sibos in Toronto: The Sibos Community session “RT1 – real and timely” will be held on Wednesday, 18 October 2017, from 15:30 to 16:30 in Conference Room 4. More information on this session, which is open to all conference attendees, can be found here.

PRESS CONTACT:
Annick Moes
Tel: +49 151 16 31 15 26
a.moes@ebaclearing.eu