Equens is expanding its product portfolio to include an end-to-end pan-European instant payment service. With its ability to support banks along the full payments value chain, from initiating the payment to the banks’ internal payment processing up to the interbank clearing and settlement process, Equens is unique in the market. The delivery to the market of the first components is scheduled for Q2 2016.

The instant payment solution will not only deliver an interbank automated clearing and settlement solution, it will also be equipped to take on payment processing within a bank. This way Equens can reduce the efforts required by banks to implement their real-time processing capabilities. The new service is complemented by a white-label mobile app, which allows for P2P payments to be made to mobile phone numbers using an alias conversion service. These end-to-end capabilities clearly differentiate Equens’ instant payment solution from other market solutions, which offer a more limited scope.

Alessandro Baroni, CMO Equens: “By expanding our portfolio with this complete instant payment service, we demonstrate our continued focus to cater for the full spectrum of our clients’ current and future needs. This seamlessly fits our European strategy, aimed at supporting our clients in the challenges they are facing in the rapidly developing European payments market, in which reliability, continuity and the capability to innovate are of the essence.”

Based on Equens’ proven track record of processing 10 billion SEPA payments per year and its experience in running and operating real-time systems for card processing with an annual volume of 5 billion card transactions, Equens has wide expertise and a solid basis to build on. The instant payment solution will be fully compliant with the upcoming SCTinst scheme as defined by the European Payments Council and will be open to any PSP or PSP community all over Europe.

Furthermore, as a member of the European Automated Clearing House Association (EACHA), Equens is actively working with other prominent ACHs across Europe on securing interoperability between the different European processors, so as to allow for the greatest reach and true pan-European instant payment services.

The end-to-end instant payment solution will be developed based on a roadmap. The delivery to the market of the first components is scheduled for Q2 2016.