Icon Solutions, a leading provider of technology solutions and instant payments consultancy, today announces the start of functional testing between the Instant Payments Framework (IPF) and RT1, EBA Clearing’s pan-European infrastructure solution for the processing of SEPA instant payments. Icon are amongst the first to initiate testing and start moving towards ensuring full compliance with the RT1 platform.

Icon has previously completed testing between IPF and SIAnet, and as a frontrunner service provider is quickly working towards delivering a solution to help banks implement instant payments in Europe. 

IPF leverages 10 years of instant payments experience in Europe and Asia. IPF’s rich ISO20022 native data format accommodates the data requirements of any payment system, being easy to integrate with existing ledgers, screening and fraud systems, while providing full operational monitoring and control. As well as the core payment messages, IPF supports value-added service messages such as Requests for Payment. It will be a key tool for banks wanting to implement instant payments allowing via the rapid adoption of SCT Inst but without the need for re-engineering existing payment systems.

Commenting on the collaboration, Tom Hay, Head of Payments at Icon Solutions said: “IPF is a high-performance payment engine that captures Icon’s extensive instant payments experience. This functional testing will ensure that IPF is fully compliant with the RT1 platform and will provide banks with a ‘plug and play’ option for connecting to EBA Clearing’s pan-European Instant Payments infrastructure.”

Erwin Kulk, Head of Service Development and Management at EBA Clearing also stated: “We are very pleased with the testing progress we are seeing among our future RT1 user community and their technical service providers. Close to 30 banks are currently getting ready to join our pan-European infrastructure solution from day one of the SCT Inst Scheme in November. Frontrunner service providers play a crucial role in facilitating user connectivity and thereby help to build up the broad adoption that will be needed to make instant payments a reality for European businesses and consumers.”