EBA CLEARING launches programme on future positioning of its high-value payment system EURO1

EBA CLEARING is launching a programme for the future positioning and potential evolution of its EURO1 system, as the Company announced at the European payments conference EBAday in Dublin today. Europe’s leading private-sector provider of large-value payment services is rallying its user community for a joint investigation into these topics over the next year. This initial study should serve to define the requirements and roadmap for an implementation project, which could potentially be rolled out as early as 2020.

EBA CLEARING is kicking off this programme to both react to and anticipate important market developments such as the upcoming introduction of real-time euro payments, the industry-wide migration to ISO 20022 standards for high-value payments as well as evolving regulatory and oversight requirements impacting many relevant areas, including liquidity management and payment system operation.

“With our real-time payment platform RT1 all set for its go-live in November, we are ready to revisit the positioning of EURO1 with our user community,”

said Hays Littlejohn, Chief Executive Officer of EBA CLEARING.

“While there are quite a few drivers motivating the launch of our new programme, a recent user consultation has also confirmed that EURO1 continues to be highly valued in its current set-up and is considered by our users to be fit for purpose for the next few years. That is why our initiative will strive to strike a fine balance: ready EURO1 for the longer-term future by adapting it to all the changes we can expect in the high-value payments world, while also maintaining and potentially enhancing its value and, where possible, leveraging investments already made.”

EBA CLEARING will kick off the study phase of its ‘EURO1 Future Positioning Programme’ with interested users over the next few months. The aim is to deliver a proposal and related implementation roadmap by mid-2018 to be followed by a wider user consultation. Implementation of the future service and value proposition could be foreseen for 2020.

EURO1 is EBA CLEARING’s single euro payment system, which has been serving payment banks across Europe since the start of the European Monetary Union as a liquidity-efficient alternative to TARGET2, with a market share of nearly 40%.

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.

With the support of 39 funding institutions from across SEPA and its technology partner SIA, EBA CLEARING is currently implementing RT1, a pan-European real-time payment infrastructure platform for euro transactions. The system will be open to any account-servicing payment service provider (AS-PSP) adhering to the EPC’s SCT Inst Scheme and handle instant payments in line with the scheme from its launch date in November 2017 on.

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