During the International Payments Summit, SIA (Società Interbancaria per l’Automazione) and EBA CLEARING announced that the top seven Italian banking groups are ready to start migrating their domestic credit transfers to the STEP2 platform on 24th November 2006. STEP2 is the first Pan-European Automated Clearing House (PE-ACH), designed and developed by SIA, which also operates the service on behalf of EBA CLEARING.
The leading Italian credit institutions, by aligning their payment systems to the new standards of the Payment Services Directive for SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) , are making a very early and concrete step towards Europe.
In 2008, when SEPA will be implemented, there will no longer be any difference between national and international payments directed towards Members of the European Union, as well as Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland (in the EFTA area).
"From our point of view, SEPA is already a reality, because we have realised the first, and to this moment only, SEPA-compliant infrastructure: STEP2" declared Renzo Vanetti, CEO of SIA. "Right from the start we were determined to fulfil the role of IT full-service provider that EBA had assigned to us. The launch of the two national communities in Italy and Luxembourg confirms the commitment of SIA and EBA CLEARING to building the Single Euro Payments Area".
On 24th November, Gruppo Intesa, Gruppo Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Gruppo Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, Gruppo Bipiemme-Banca Popolare di Milano, Gruppo Banco Popolare di Verona e di Novara, Gruppo San Paolo-IMI and Gruppo UniCredito will progressively migrate their credit transfers to a single European clearing and settlement system, already in use among the 25 EU Members for a significant share of cross-border transfers.
The technology of the platform developed by SIA is fully compatible with the systems of other Italian and foreign banks that have not yet migrated to the new system.
"We have been working hard with SIA and seven Italian banks to achieve a timely implementation of this highly sophisticated clearing platform - said Gilbert Lichter, CEO EBA CLEARING - Banks in Italy and Europe will now be able to switch in a flexible manner their domestic payments to PE-ACH as part of their SEPA migration strategy".
The purpose of migrating to STEP2 is to manage all payment operations (national and cross-border) on a single pan-European SEPA-compliant platform.
The migration of the seven Italian banking groups to STEP2 will be advantageous for:
· citizens, because all payments that transit through the new
platform will reach destination within 3 working days, as compared with the current standards of 4 days for national payments and 8-10 days for cross-border payments;
· businesses, because in addition to the benefits to citizens, they
will be able to send their Italian and European credit transfers to the bank through a single application;
· banks, because they will be able to manage domestic and
cross-border credit transfers through a single platform (STEP2). The migration will also make it possible to simplify internal procedures because it makes the traditional distinction between Italian and foreign payments obsolete.
These factors, when fully operational, may generate economies of scale that could reduce charges and increase the speed of operations execution.
After the new credit transfer system is activated, STEP2 will also handle cross-border direct debits, with the possibility of extending it to the national circuit as well.
Indeed, at the beginning of 2006, these seven leading Italian banks, together with 52 of the leading banks in Europe, signed an agreement to develop a SEPA Direct Debit platform in partnership with EBA Clearing and SIA. The first and core delivery of the STEP2 SEPA Direct Debit Service is scheduled to be launched in 2007, ahead of the deadline of the European Commission, with the objective of reaching about one hundred credit institutions in Europe. The STEP2 SEPA Direct Debit Service will be fully in line with the industry standards defined by the European Payments Council.
SIA delivered the STEP2 platform in 2003, after winning the bid for the contract with EBA CLEARING in 2002. The system has been designed to handle high volumes of national and international payments, as defined by the Credeuro Convention and the SEPA rules and, to this moment, is the only platform of its kind in Europe.
SIA is the main Italian provider of technological services and solutions for the international banking and financial system in the areas of networking, financial markets, payment systems, e-government and risk management. In 2005 SIA realised an output value of Euro 186.6 million.