EBACL PR 20130521 Major German Institutions Migrate Domestic Mass Payments To STEP2 v1.0

PRESS RELEASE
Berlin and Paris, 21st May 2013
EBA CLEARING provides central processing

platform for SEPA payments
Major German financial institutions have decided to use the pan-European
payment system STEP2 for clearing mass payments in Germany and
Europe
EBA CLEARINGs STEP2 platform will gradually take over the processing of a
major part of the German mass payment volumes from the second half of 2013
onwards. This was announced today by representatives of major German
financial institutions from the private banking, savings banking and cooperative
banking sectors at the payments conference EBAday in Berlin.
STEP2 will support at least seven important players in the German payments
market in exchanging national credit transfers and direct debits in the SEPA
formats. In the course of this changeover from legacy to SEPA formats, EBA
CLEARINGs Pan-European Automated Clearing House (PE-ACH) will
progressively replace the direct bilateral exchange of national mass payments
currently taking place between the individual financial institutions
(Garagenclearing). In analogy to their current bilateral exchange approach, the
institutions will pre-sort their files by receiving bank, which facilitates faster and
more efficient processing. The participating institutions are already using
STEP2 for the settlement of their present SEPA volumes.
As a pan-European system, STEP2 enables banks to channel all their euro
retail transactions within Europe through one clearing system, says
Christian Rhino, Divisional Board Member, Banking Operations,
Commerzbank AG. Concentrating our mass payments on one central
platform allows us to minimise our administrative and monitoring efforts and
to improve our liquidity management in this area.
PRESS CONTACT:
Annick Moes
Tel: +49 151 1631 1526
([email protected])
With STEP2, EBA CLEARING offers a highly efficient solution that fulfils all
the requirements for processing mass payments in the Single Euro
Payments Area, says Wolf-Rdiger Braun, Head of Division Operation
Services, Landesbank Baden-Wrttemberg. We are looking forward to
connecting the German savings banking sector, in co-operation with the
other Landesbanken, to this cost-effective and future-oriented infrastructure,
says Markus Jrg, Head of Cash Management, Helaba.
STEP2 was designed as a scalable and flexible system to optimally support
the migration of cross-border and domestic volumes to the SEPA formats,
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says Gilbert Lichter, Chief Executive Officer, EBA CLEARING. We welcome

the decision of our German STEP2 Participants to also use the platform for
their domestic payments. The necessary preparations for a smooth
changeover of the processes of all the parties involved have already started
and are expected to lead to a successful migration over the coming months.
In view of the SEPA migration end-date (1st February 2014), EBA CLEARING is
currently implementing the final STEP2 functionality enhancements. The
processing speed and capacity of STEP2 have already been significantly
increased over the last few months. Moreover, a third processing site will start
operating in a test mode in November 2013, which will further contribute to
adapting the technical and operational robustness of STEP2 to the settlement of
higher volumes and future regulatory requirements. These preparations are
putting EBA CLEARING in a position to provide the European financial industry
with a clearing infrastructure for SEPA transactions that meets the high
resilience requirements for systemically important payment systems in time for
the migration end-date.
Furthermore, STEP2 users will shortly be able to rely on a German-speaking
customer support service, which will be integrated into the existing EBA
CLEARING office in Frankfurt.
As a pan-European platform for mass payments in euro, STEP2 is a central
component of the SEPA payment infrastructure. The system has been live since
2003 and ensures the full reachability of all payment service providers that offer
SEPA Credit Transfers and Direct Debits. Participating institutions can
technically connect to the platform via SWIFTNet, SIANet and, from October
2013 on, also EBICS. STEP2 settles in TARGET2, the real-time gross
settlement system of the Eurosystem.
Currently, about one third of all SEPA Credit Transfers and almost 75 percent of
all SEPA Direct Debits that are processed by mass payment systems in the
eurozone according to the European Central Bank are exchanged via STEP2.
Apart from cross-border payments, the platform also processes the domestic
payment traffic of the banking communities in Finland, Luxembourg and Ireland
as well as of many major banks in other countries, e.g. Italy. More than 4,700
financial institutions in 32 countries can be reached via STEP2.
ends
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ABOUT
EBA CLEARING
EBA CLEARING is a provider of pan-European payment infrastructure

solutions. The Company was founded in 1998 and is owned by 63 of the major
banks operating in Europe.
EBA CLEARING manages the large-value payment system EURO1 as well as
STEP1, a payment system for commercial transactions. Since 2003, EBA
CLEARING has also been managing the STEP2 platform, together with SIA as
technology partner.
STEP2 is a pan-European payment infrastructure for mass payments (PanEuropean Automated Clearing House PE-ACH) providing full reach to all
financial institutions across Europe processing credit transfers and direct debits
in euro.
For further details regarding the system and operational stability of STEP2,
please refer to our press release EBA CLEARING enhances resilience of
STEP2 platform in co-operation with SIA and IBM issued today.
For additional information about EBA CLEARING, please visit:
www.ebaclearing.eu
ABOUT
SEPA
The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) designates the integrated European
payment environment for euro transactions. Geographically speaking, SEPA
covers the 27 EU countries as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway
and Switzerland.
The aim of the SEPA initiative is to strengthen the Internal Market through the
use of harmonised pan-European payment instruments, standards and formats
for mass payments in euro by payment service providers and their customers.
The migration from todays domestic payment instruments to the SEPA Credit
Transfers and SEPA Direct Debits is stipulated by the SEPA Regulation (EU
Regulation No. 260/2012) and must be completed, with very few exceptions, by
1st February 2014.
For additional information on SEPA, please visit:
http://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/content.cfm?page=sepa_vision_and_g
oals
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PRESS RELEASE

Berlin and Paris, 21st May 2013

EBA CLEARING provides central processing

says Gilbert Lichter, Chief Executive Officer, EBA CLEARING. We welcome

EBA CLEARING is a provider of pan-European payment infrastructure

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