UniCredit prepares for multinational roll-out of instant payments

• UniCredit has started testing with the first pan-European instant payment solution, RT1, in preparation for its instant payments go-live

• Real-time payments products will first become available to UniCredit customers in Italy and Germany

UniCredit and EBA CLEARING today announced that UniCredit has started testing with RT1, EBA CLEARING pan-European, real-time payment platform. This test phase is a key milestone for UniCredit in its preparations to roll out euro instant payment products to its customer base across Europe.

UniCredit is one of the first banks preparing to make real-time payments available to customers in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) on the launch date of the European Payments Council SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (“SCT Inst”) Scheme. 

UniCredit customers in Italy and Germany will be the first to use this new payment method, starting from November 2017 onwards.

Jan Kupfer, Global Co-Head of Global Transaction Banking at UniCredit, commented: “The introduction of euro-denominated instant payments will enable us to better support the payment businesses of both our corporate and retail customers in the internal market. By providing our customers with payments facilities 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with payers notified of a successful transaction within seconds, we will greatly enhance the effectiveness of our services and increase customer trust. Widespread adoption and new, value-added services that optimise the customer experience will only serve to increase the benefits. In addition, UniCredit ongoing digital transformation program will be a further beneficiary of our connection to the new instant payments infrastructure.”

Hays Littlejohn, CEO of EBA CLEARING, said: “We are very pleased to count UniCredit among the early frontrunners actively preparing to join our RT1 system on the launch date of European instant payments and to roll out this highly attractive new payment method to a multinational customer base. Our aim was to provide the European payments industry with a fully-fledged pan-European infrastructure system from the start date of SCT Inst, and we are happy to see that RT1 meets the requirements of our funding banks as well as of a growing community of fast followers across the continent. Banks from several different countries are currently engaged in testing activities, with more following before the end of the summer. At present, close to 30 financial institutions are planning to connect to RT1 in November while another 70 banks are preparing to join in 2018.”

UniCredit is among the 39 funding institutions enabling the development of the new EBA CLEARING infrastructure, which will provide a pan-European, real-time payment processing engine working 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Starting from November 2017, account-servicing payment service providers (ASPSPs) from across SEPA will be able to use this highly flexible euro payments solution that is fully compliant with the European Payments Council SCT Inst Scheme and in line with the ISO 20022 global messaging standards for real-time payments.

About UniCredit

We are a strong pan-European Group with a simple commercial banking model and a fully plugged in Corporate & Investment Bank, delivering our unique Western, Central and Eastern European network to our extensive client franchise.
We offer local expertise as well as international reach. We accompany and support our 25 million clients globally, providing them with unparalleled access to our leading banks in 14 core markets as well as to an another 18 countries worldwide.

About EBA CLEARING

EBA CLEARING is a provider of pan-European payment infrastructure solutions. Founded in 1998, the Company is owned by 52 of the major banks operating in Europe and based on a country-neutral governance model. The payment systems of EBA CLEARING are pan-European by design and desire: they are developed in close co-operation with the Company multinational user community and best-of-breed technology partners.
EBA CLEARING manages two Systemically Important Payment Systems, the large-value euro payment system EURO1 and STEP2, a pan-European payment infrastructure platform for mass payments in euro, which provides full reach to all financial institutions across Europe processing credit transfers and direct debits in euro. This means that more than 4,800 financial institutions in all SEPA countries are currently reachable via STEP2.
With the support of 39 funding institutions from across SEPA and its technology partner SIA, EBA CLEARING is currently implementing RT1, a pan-European real-time payment infrastructure platform for euro transactions. The system will be open to any AS-PSP adhering to the European Payments Council SCT Inst Scheme and handle instant payments in line with the scheme from its launch date in November 2017 on.

For more information on EBA CLEARING, please visit www.ebaclearing.eu, or follow the Company on www.twitter.com/ebaclearing or https://www.linkedin.com/company/eba-clearing.

Source: Unicredit statement