Intesa Sanpaolo and EBA clearing have announced the successful execution of the first user testing activities for the Pan-European real-time payment platform. Among the institutions funding the new EBA CLEARING infrastructure solution, Intesa Sanpaolo is the first one to connect to the test system. The new payment infrastructure will provide a real-time payment processing engine working around the clock on any day of the year. 

Start date and bank users

Starting from November 2017, account-servicing payment service providers (AS-PSPs) from all over SEPA will be able to use this flexible solution for payment products in euro that are fully compliant with the European Payments Council’s SCT Inst Scheme and in line with the ISO 20022 global messaging standards for real-time payments. 

Mr. Hays Littlejohn, CEO of EBA CLEARING, said: “Intesa Sanpaolo is the first future participant to connect directly to our test system and is amongst the 25 users currently preparing to go live this year. Together with those institutions that are planning to connect to the system in 2018, these early joiners represent nearly 85% of the SEPA Credit Transfer traffic processed by our STEP2 system today. More and more banks and service providers are developing services around our new platform, and we are confident that we will see a positive evolution of the reach of the service from the start of the ramp-up period on.” 

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CTMfile take: The decision by EBA Clearing to respond to the Euro Retail Payments Board demand that the euro area must have an instant payments pan-European solution in 2014 was vital for the consolidation of the euro business area. From November 2017 corporates will be able to collect and make euro payments in a new paradigm, opening up a whole range of opportunities.