EBA Clearing, Irish Payment Services Organisation launch STEP2 Irish service

The STEP2 service will manage the Irish legacy credit transfers and direct debits, processing pre-sorted bilateral files exchanged between the Irish banks. STEP2 will allow banks to keep their adjustments to a minimum and to offer better service levels, such as intra-day processing, to their customers. The payment files have been delivered to the 6 participant banks, AIB Bank, Bank of Ireland, BNP Paribas, Danske Bank A/S National Irish Bank, Permanent TSB and Ulster Bank.

EBA Clearing is owned by 67 banks operating in Europe. It manages a processing infrastructure for euro retail payments which includes 4,670 banks across Europe.

The Irish Payment Services Organisation (IPSO) is the representative body for payments in Ireland. Its primary objective is to preserve the integrity and security of its payment systems. It also has responsibility to modernise the payments industry in Ireland. IPSO provides central programme management for key industry initiatives such as fraud prevention, the National Payments Implementation Programme (with the Department of Finance), SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) implementation and the rollout of Chip and PIN.