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

The Request for Proposal (RFP) for a technical solution provider marks the next phase in the Company’s journey towards offering a pan-European infrastructure service for instant payments to payment service providers by 2018.

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, 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.

An updated version of the document incorporating the results of a consultation phase with a dedicated task force of PSPs from across Europe is currently under preparation and planned to be released at the Sibos conference in mid-October 2015, according to finextra.com.

“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.

About EBA CLEARING
EBA CLEARING is a bank-owned provider of pan-European payment infrastructure solutions. The Company was established in June 1998 by 52 major European and international banks with the mission to own and operate EURO1, the only privately owned RTGS-equivalent large-value payment system on a multilateral net basis.

Since 2000, EBA CLEARING has been running the STEP1 single payment system on the EURO1 platform, which is geared at medium-sized and smaller banks. EBA CLEARING also owns and operates STEP2, a Pan-European Automated Clearing House (PE-ACH) for processing euro retail payments.

Today, EBA CLEARING counts 60 shareholder banks and, through its EURO1, STEP1 and STEP2 systems, offers both high-value and low-value clearing and settlement services to a wide community of banks in the European Union. In addition, EBA CLEARING has developed the pan-European e-authorisation solution MyBank, which was launched in March 2013.