EBA Clearing is working with a consortium of Nordic banks to develop a processing system for large value express transactions based on Sepa ISO 200022 XML standards.
The banks - operating within the EBA under the acronym Seebach (Sepa-EBA-PE-ACH) - have already committed to move their domestic payments to EBA Clearing's Step2 platform, and are now looking at options that would enable them to transmit express payments to the Pan-European clearing house via the same channel and network using the same XML standard.
Kirstine Nilsson, vice president and Sepa & PSD Coordinator, Swedbank, says: "We would like to see all our euro transactions within Europe - both mass and single payments - processed in one standard, ISO20022 XML."
EBA Clearing CEO Gilbert Lichter says the objective is to provide user banks with a migration path from MT103 to XML if and when they wish to do so.
"To that effect, we plan to make available conversion services on a closed user group basis, so that participants can send and receive either format or both formats," he says. "Our work undertaken with the Seebach banks initially focuses on the Finnish market. Our findings and solutions will of course be made available to any other interested community."