Launching supplier-driven Open Forum on Pan- European Instant Payments

This new forum has been initiated by the Euro Banking Association (EBA), a pan-European association of payment service providers and suppliers with a focus on payments and operations. The objective of this supplier-driven forum is to broaden the exchange of views on instant payments among payment practitioners and other stakeholders and to contribute to the upcoming instant payment scheme discussions.

The forum also provides a platform for liaising with other entities engaged in evaluating related industry initiatives at a European and global level. The initiative is a response to a call for action by the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB), which has invited the supply side of the payments industry to help achieve an open and competitive market for instant payments in Europe. Based on a vision document created by the European Central Bank (ECB), the ERPB has expressed a need for at least one pan-European instant payment solution for euro open to any payment service provider in the European Union and has invited the supply side to make an assessment of the issues related to the delivery of any such solution.

The initial meeting of the open forum focused on kicking off the discussions around end-to-end instant payment service requirements and the perimeter of the collaborative space for infrastructure services to support instant payments at a pan- European level. It included a tour de table among the participants as well as an analysis of the expectations formulated by the ECB and the ERPB and of the underlying ‘layered approach’ for the development of any pan-European solutions for instant payments.

Participation in the discussions is open to representatives of any entity with an interest in contributing to enhanced European electronic payment solutions. The forum is of particular interest to payment service providers, users, suppliers with a special focus 2/2 on payments and operations, as well as relevant stakeholders in the European and global payments industry. The discussions at this first meeting of the open forum are expected to trigger further exchanges between participants in the weeks to come. The next meeting of the open forum will be held in Amsterdam on 12th May 2015.