EBA CLEARING and IBERPAY activate link between IBERPAY and STEP2 platforms for SEPA Direct Debits

EBA CLEARING and IBERPAY announced today the successful activation of a link for exchanging SEPA Direct Debits (SDD) between IBERPAY and the STEP2 platform. With this new link, IBERPAY and EBA CLEARING are further expanding their fruitful cooperation, which started in January 2008 when a connection between both platforms was implemented for SEPA Credit Transfers. These links allow financial institutions that participate in the IBERPAY system to exchange SEPA payments with banks in 32 European countries. In addition, the links help to ensure full reachability in Spain for EBA CLEARING’s PE-ACH Services by providing STEP2 access to those banks that are not connected to the platform.

“IBERPAY’s cooperation with EBA CLEARING provides our users with efficient solutions for exchanging both SEPA Credit Transfers and Direct Debits among financial institutions in the Single Euro Payments Area. Since the connection to STEP2 is established and hosted by IBERPAY, our institutions can benefit from the advantages in efficiency and cost-effectiveness of sending all their payments through one single channel,” said Manuel Cobo, Chairman of the Board of IBERPAY.

“EBA CLEARING looks forward to further evolving our cooperation with IBERPAY and its user institutions. We are very pleased to establish interoperability for SDD Core and B2B payments with a key infrastructure provider in the Spanish payment market and to offer our communities full reach throughout SEPA for both credit transfers and direct debits. This is a further enhancement of the company’s interoperability model to satisfy the demand of our shareholders and users” said Giorgio Ferrero, Chairman of the Board of EBA CLEARING.

The new IBERPAY-STEP2 link allows IBERPAY users to benefit from the Europe-wide reach for SEPA Direct Debits facilitated by EBA CLEARING’s Pan-European Automated Clearing House STEP2. Conversely, the new link supports the full reach of the STEP2 SEPA Direct Debit Services in Spain.