Central Bank of Lithuania selects SIA to access instant payments

The Bank of Lithuania, the Central Bank of the country, has selected SIA to access RT1, the pan-European instant payments infrastructure that is operative as of 21 November 2017. Thanks to SIAnet, the fiber optic network with high speed and low latency stretching over 170,000 kilometers, the Bank of Lithuania was one of the early users to join EBA Clearing’s system.

Through the Central Bank’s connection, Lithuanian banks can access the RT1 infrastructure allowing the country system to execute instant payments up to 15,000 euros in less than 10 seconds, 24/7, all year long.

”The network infrastructure SIAnet is specially designed to meet the specific requirements of instant payments in terms of security, reliability, ease of integration with any application environment and compliance with SEPA’s Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme created by the European Payments Council.”, according to the press release.

“We are particularly proud to have reached this significant agreement with Bank of Lithuania allowing the country system to take part from the beginning in the instant payments revolution. It’s another remarkable success at international level that highlights SIA’s technological capabilities leveraging its innovative network solution,” commented Andrea Galeazzi, Network Services Director of SIA.

‘Promotion and implementation of payment innovations that bring benefits to both consumers and businesses is one of the strategic directions of the Bank of Lithuania. Joining the upgraded Bank of Lithuania payment system CENTROlink, payment service providers could be one of the first in Europe to offer their clients instant payments. We see great interest in our system and the possibilities it offers’ said Marius Jurgilas, Member of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania.