After a selection process that began in 2010, the Belgian banking community is now testing in preparation for the switch early next year to the clearing and settlement mechanism (CSM).

It will process both Sepa and legacy payment instruments for a total of 16 direct participation banks and another two card processors.

The new Belgian CSM will be hosted on the same clearing platform developed by the French banking community - which owns Stet.

The system will use "highly efficient technology and processes" available on its Core platform to introduce an advanced clearing model with multiple intraday cycles, full settlement risk mitigation procedures and on-line risk monitoring, says Stet.

Tom Van Der Biest, BNP Paribas Fortis, says: "By choosing a high-performance platform that is fully compatible with the standardisation of European payment instruments, the Belgian banking community is backing technical consolidation of the payments market."