SWIFTNet Snags Major Partnership with EBA Clearing in Core European Market
EXCLUSIVE – A new partnership with pan-European payment infrastructure provider EBA Clearing will help push financial services company SWIFT forward in its expansionary goals for its instant payment network provider, SWIFTNet Instant.
On Tuesday, SWIFTNet announced that users of EBA Clearing’s instant payment system, RT1 will be able to access the system using SWIFTNet Instant. It will enable users to connect seamlessly to multiple instant payment clearing and settlement mechanisms. The SWIFT solution will also provide its users (mainly financial institutions) features including messaging, file transfers and browse solutions.
The purpose of the RT1 platform is to allow member banks to use a 24/7 settlement service of real-time payments in line with the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) Scheme of the European Payments Council (EPC).
Along with 39 funding institutions, EBA Clearing has been developing RT1 since April 2016, according to a company statement. It is scheduled to go live on November 21 this year, but the SWIFTNet Instant feature will be available for its users only from November 2018.
The transactions that would come under this system will be high volume but low value, Carlo Palmers, SWIFT head of infrastructures market told Bank Innovation. In other words, these transactions will consist of retail, mobile, p2p, point of sale, etc. The transfer time will be 10 seconds or even less, he said.
For SWIFT, provider of secure financial messaging services to financial institutions, the partnership falls neatly into its aspirations for expansions in Europe.
“Europe is a core market for us,” Palmers told Bank Innovation. “Payments is also a core market. And in this case, we are seeing the European banking community come together to offer instant payments. And for them to want to use our services is an important and relevant step for us.”
Aside from RT1, SWIFT is also gearing up for its instant payment network launch in Australia by the end year.
According to an EBA company statement, it expects to have 30 joiners for the go-live of RT1 this November and more than 50 users by mid-2018.
