EBA, SWIFT and TCH Partner for Immediate Cross-Border Payments

EBA CLEARING, SWIFT and The Clearing House (TCH) announced that they plan to launch a pilot service for immediate cross-border (IXB) payments with the support of banks from both sides of the Atlantic. The pilot service is scheduled to begin by the end of this year with several participants joining the service in a phased approach. It is being designed with the contribution of 24 financial institutions, including those that are preparing to join the pilot.

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The development of this pilot marks another important step in the IXB initiative launched by the three private-sector, member-owned companies to improve cross-border payments by utilising the fastest domestic payment options. It follows a proof of concept completed in October 2021, with the contribution of seven financial institutions. The proof of concept demonstrated the ability to synchronise settlement in one instant payment system with settlement in the other and to convert real-time messages between both systems.

Since October 2021, the group of supporting financial institutions has continued to grow and has formed an IXB Sounding Board to provide input on the development of this cross-border payment service leveraging existing real-time infrastructure, technology and standards. Based on state-of-the-art building blocks, such as ISO 20022 message standards, SWIFT Go and the instant payment systems of EBA CLEARING and TCH, the service initially will support instant payments in the U.S. dollar and euro currency corridor. It is developed with a view to being extended to other currency channels and payment systems.

"The RT1 and RTP networks are perfectly positioned to deliver a better cross-border experience with a very short time to market,"said Russ Waterhouse, Executive Vice President for Product Development and Strategy at The Clearing House."The trans-Atlantic pilot service will provide valuable input for the development of a fully-fledged IXB service to meet customer expectations across the globe."

"We are pleased that the IXB development benefits from the expert input of 24 banks from 10 countries,"said Erwin Kulk, Head of Service Development and Management at EBA CLEARING."Aside from delivering a simple and transparent service for end users, our key aim is to keep things easy for financial institutions: the fact that there is no need to connect to a separate payment system should make the service very attractive for RT1 and RTP participants of all sizes."

"The interlinking of instant payment systems promises a new way of moving money across borders safely, quickly, and at low cost,"said David Watson, Chief Strategy Officer at SWIFT."SWIFT's enhanced platform and transaction management capabilities create a flexible and efficient way to interlink multiple instant payment schemes, while enabling banks to re-use their existing investment, and we look forward to supporting the development of the IXB pilot service."