EBA Clearing is to offer night-time settlement of Sepa payments across the ECB's Target2 payments network from the end of the year.
Target2 acceptance testing of the new settlement model for Step 2 Sepa Credit Transfers starts on 24 September.
José Beltrán, director of Step2 Services at EBA Clearing, says the new night-time cycle is being introduced in response to member requests for earlier file delivery.
"The new cycle facilitates early application of funds to customer accounts and, at the same time, ensures that the secure principle of settlement before delivery of files is maintained," he says.
Night-time processing has been made possible by the implementation of a new Multilateral Netting Module (MNM) between the Step2 platform and the Target2 Ancillary System Interface (ASI). The MNM was developed in co-operation with Swift and derives net settlement amounts from the individual bilateral gross obligations generated by the Step2 platform.
Beltrán says the arrangement prepares the Step2 Pan-European ACH for an anticipated upswing in Sepa instrument transfers from a larger user base in the coming years.