EBA CLEARING launches RFP process for pan-European instant payment infrastructure solution

EBA CLEARING has launched a Request for Proposal (RFP) process for the delivery of a pan-European instant payment infrastructure solution within the next two years. As the Company announced today, the operator of the systemically important euro payment systems EURO1 and STEP2 has kicked off a search for a technical solution provider capable of implementing and running an instant payment infrastructure solution of pan-European scale.

The start of the RFP phase follows the publication of a Blueprint for an Instant Payment Infrastructure Solution, which was issued on 1st July 2015 and subject to an extensive consultation exercise involving potential service users and key stakeholders during the third quarter of 2015.

“The fruitful and very supportive exchanges during the consultation on the blueprint over the past three months have confirmed that we are on the right course for the delivery of a solution capable of meeting the expectations of PSPs across Europe for a pan-European instant payment infrastructure,” said Erkki Poutiainen, Chairman, EBA CLEARING.

“Based on this positive feedback, the Board of EBA CLEARING has been happy to kick off the next phase of this ambitious delivery process and start the search for a technical solution provider to help us put in place and run this future service. We look forward to completing this next phase by the end of this year as a basis for the development of the solution in 2016.”

In line with the roadmap issued as part of its Blueprint, EBA CLEARING plans to offer a pan-European service for instant payments in the clearing and settlement layer to payment service providers (PSPs) by 2018, after a pilot phase in 2017.

The future infrastructure solution by EBA CLEARING will be geared at handling any euro transactions that are in line with the instant payment definition and requirements formulated by the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB) in late 2014 and should thus be able to support any real-time payment products that PSPs in Europe may decide to offer to their customers.

EBA CLEARING’s Blueprint for an Instant Payment Infrastructure Solution was compiled based on the input of a task force composed of over 20 representatives of EBA CLEARING service users. An updated version of the document incorporating the results of the consultation phase is currently under preparation and planned to be released at the Sibos conference in mid-October 2015.

EBA CLEARING is a provider of pan-European payment infrastructure solutions. The Company was founded in 1998 and is owned by 60 of the major banks operating in Europe.

EBA CLEARING manages the large-value payment system EURO1 as well as STEP1, a payment service for commercial transactions, and STEP2, a pan-European payment infrastructure platform for mass payments in euro, providing full reach to all financial institutions across Europe processing credit transfers and direct debits in euro. More than 4,800 financial institutions in 34 countries are reachable via STEP2.

Following the launch of its instant payment initiative in mid-2014, EBA CLEARING kicked off work on an instant payment infrastructure blueprint and roadmap in March 2015 with the support of a dedicated task force composed by PSPs from across Europe. The first version of the Blueprint for an Instant Payment Infrastructure Solution was issued on 1st July 2015 as a basis for a wider consultation exercise.

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