Euro Banking Association

The Euro Banking Association is an association consisting of 190 European banks. It serves as a forum for the European payments industry and plays a major role in the development of payment infrastructure solutions at a pan-European level. Through its industry initiatives and the euro payment systems it has delivered, the EBA has been and continues to be a key contributor to the creation of a standardised Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).

History and structure

The Euro Banking Association was founded in Paris in 1985 by 18 commercial banks and the European Investment Bank. The European Commission as well as the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) supported the founding of the EBA. Since then, the number of members has risen to 190. The institutions come from all member states of the European Union and from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, China, India, Japan, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates and the USA.

In its early years, the agenda of the EBA included the promotion of the European Monetary Union (EMU) and the development and management of a private industry ECU clearing system stretching across Europe.

For the start of the EMU, the EBA delivered EURO1, a pan-European clearing and settlement system for single payments in euro. The system was handed over to EBA CLEARING, a company that was founded in order to own and operate this payment system. The EBA also developed STEP1, a payment system for commercial transactions and STEP2, the first and so far only Pan-European Automated Clearing House, which processes mass euro payments for banks from 31 European countries. All three payment systems are run by EBA CLEARING.

In early 2008, the EBA launched the EBA Priority Payment Scheme, a non-proprietary scheme open to any bank in SEPA. The scheme enables banks to offer their customers urgent intra-day payments at a pan-European level.

In line with its focus on pan-European payment solutions, the EBA drives and participates in a number of European payment initiatives taking place in the cooperative sphere. It contributes to the work of the European Payments Council and other key institutions in the European payments industry. Once a year, it brings together its member banks and organisations as well as other stakeholders in the market for a pan-European payments conference entitled EBAday. The EBA also runs a payments portal providing news and information on ongoing topics in the market.

The EBA is currently exploring ways in which it might contribute to pan-European solutions in the field of electronic invoicing. In February 2008, the EBA published "E-Invoicing 2008", a reference guide on e-invoicing in cooperation with the consulting firm Innopay.

The head office of the Euro Banking Association is located in Paris.

EBA CLEARING

The EBA CLEARING Company was founded in June 1998 by 52 banks. Its initial mission consisted in the operation of the clearing and settlement system for single euro transactions EURO1, which the EBA had transferred to EBA CLEARING for the launch of the system in late 1999. EURO1 has established itself as the sole bank-owned clearing and settlement system for euro payments at a pan-European level. It constitutes the only private sector alternative to the TARGET2 system operated by the European System of Central Banks. Besides EURO1, EBA CLEARING today also owns and operates STEP1, a payment system for individual commercial transactions, and STEP2, the first and so far only Pan-European Automated Clearing House (PE-ACH) for mass payments in euro. STEP2 processes both Credeuro and SEPA payments.

EBA CLEARING is based in Paris; it has representative offices in Brussels, Frankfurt and Milan.

EURO1

EURO1 is a real-time net clearing and settlement system for individual financial and commercial payments and is owned and operated by EBA CLEARING. It is open to banks that have a registered address or branch in the European Union and fulfil a number of additional requirements. On average, EURO1 processes more than 220,000 payments per day, with an overall value of over €240 billion. Today, the service counts 70 direct participants and over 55 sub-participants. EURO1 is subject to German law (Transactional account principle/Single Obligation Structure) and based on a messaging and IT infrastructure provided by SWIFT.

STEP1

Since 2000, EBA CLEARING has been offering a payment service named STEP1 for individual commercial payments in euro. It processes more than 20,000 transactions on a daily basis. The number of STEP1 members amounts to around 115 and mostly consists in small or middle-sized banks. The technical infrastructure is the same as that of the EURO1 system, as both use the messaging and IT infrastructure of SWIFT.

STEP2

STEP2 was put into operation in 2003 and processes bulk payments in euro. STEP2 is the first and so far only Pan-European Automated Clearing House (PE-ACH). This means that it complies with the principles set by the European Payments Council (EPC) for a PE-ACH Compliant Clearing and Settlement System. The STEP2 platform processes mass euro payments that are in line with the Credeuro convention (transactions of up to €50,000 bearing an International Bank Account Number, IBAN, and a Bank Identifier Code, BIC) as well as payments that comply with the Scheme Rulebooks and Implementation Guidelines for the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) as they have been issued by the European Payments Council. From the beginning of SEPA on 28th January 2008, STEP2 has been offering SEPA Credit Transfer processing services to close to 4,000 financial institutions across the 31 SEPA countries.

References

* [http://www.abe-eba.eu/ Euro Banking Association]
* [http://www.ebaclearing.eu/ EBA CLEARING]