EBA Clearing Testing Real-Time Payments Tool

EBA Clearing, set to launch its real-time payment service across Europe later this year, has officially commenced the testing phase of its technology.

The firm said Thursday (Jan. 19) that its service is compliance with the European Payments Council’s (EPC) SCTInst Scheme, a instant credit transfer payment scheme, and is aligned with ISO 20022 messaging standards. EBA Clearing’s technology will enable real-time payments across the EU 24/7.

According to the company, its platform is still slated for full launch in November of this year as more payment service providers get on board. Testing will begin in Milan, EBA Clearing said, with the platform running over technology provided by SIA.

“We now look forward to engaging the growing community of early movers and their trusted service providers in the pilot user tests that will follow our acceptance testing with SIA,” said EBA Clearing CEO Hays Littlejohn in a statement. “The system will be open to any AS-PSP adhering to the EPC [European Payments Council] scheme. We will offer different options to interact with the system in order to ensure that any type of user from anywhere in Europe can access the platform.”

The update is the latest since last September, when EBA Clearing announced that the number of financial institutions joining its real-time payment service had nearly doubled since five months prior, when it first revealed the project.

“Five months after the start of the development project and less than two months after the publication of the draft specifications for our instant payment service, we are happy to see that the community of interested PSPs has already grown to close to 80 institutions,” Littlejohn said at the time.