The new service allows payment service providers to leverage the pan-European instant payment system for cross-border payments that have one euro leg inside and one leg outside the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).
EBA CLEARING announced the go-live of an OCT Inst Service, which was implemented in the pan-European RT1 System on 17 November 2024 at the request of its users. RT1 provides a settlement mechanism for transactions complying with the One-Leg Out Instant Credit Transfer (OCT Inst) Scheme of the European Payments Council (EPC).
With RT1 OCT Inst, payment service providers (PSPs) across Europe can rely on the processing infrastructure, interfaces and other key components of RT1 for the handling of incoming and outgoing international instant credit transfers. As defined by the EPC scheme, the transactions also fulfil the transparency and traceability requirements set by the G20 and the Financial Stability Board for cross-border payments.
David Renault, Head of SEPA Services at EBA CLEARING, said:
“Today, RT1 is the payment system of choice for instant payments within SEPA. With seven years of operations, several thousand connected PSPs and peak volumes of over 5 million payments per day, it provides a highly performant and proven infrastructure in line with user needs and the latest industry standards.
Its operational excellence and ease of use also make RT1 a perfect infrastructure choice for PSPs wishing to move ahead and improve their international payment offering. The system is ready to handle both rising SEPA instant payment volumes and international instant payments and we look forward to onboarding our existing and potential future users for the new RT1 OCT Inst Service.”
Katja Lehr, Western Europe Product Head & Industry Advocacy Lead at J.P. Morgan Payments, said:
“The OCT Inst Scheme could take cross-border payments to the next level. Enabling PSPs across SEPA to leverage a top-performing pan-European system for inbound and outbound instant payments, the launch of an OCT Inst Service in RT1 is a crucial step towards recognising this potential. With our global scope, we look forward to extending our use of RT1 to first cross-border corridors.”
Simone Löfgen, Global Head of Payment Platforms at Commerzbank, said:
“The OCT Inst approach in combination with SCT Inst is revolutionising the payments landscape by seamlessly connecting SCT Inst in Europe with instant payments across the world and around the clock. This is a real and highly welcome bridge-building, as instant payments are developing more and more into the new normal. We see the adoption of OCT Inst to explore cross-border connectivity between instant payment systems as an important next step in this evolution.”
Raouf Soussi, Head of Strategy for Enterprise Payments at BBVA, said:
“To meet their needs in today’s interconnected world, our customers expect to be able to pay anywhere in the world in a simple, fast and transparent way. With the launch of the RT1 OCT Inst Service, EBA CLEARING and its user community are adding another important milestone to this journey, which started with the creation of the OCT Inst Scheme and should eventually result in the interconnection of clearing houses and the use of these state-of-the-art instant payment rails for international transactions.”
Jan Paul van Pul, Senior Payment Advisor, ING, said:
“The OCT Inst Scheme is a tremendous opportunity to provide one SEPA-based solution to all non-SEPA-based PSPs to improve international payments into the SEPA area. With the OCT Inst Service in RT1 in place, PSPs can now leverage a well-established real-time payment infrastructure for these payment flows, which already provides Pan-European coverage for SEPA Instant Credit Transfers today. It will enable PSPs to significantly enhance the cross-border payment services they offer to their clients.”
RT1 is a pan-European infrastructure for instant payments in euro, operated by EBA CLEARING. Launched in 2017, the system currently settles over 3 million payments per day with peaks of over 5 million transactions. RT1 transactions are settled in real time and with immediate finality, in roughly one second, across all corners of Europe. The RT1 SCT Inst Service reaches all PSPs adhering to the EPC’s SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) Scheme and offers a variety of options allowing EPC SCT Inst Scheme adherents to access the system in the way that best suits their needs.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
