Since the end of May 2019, far more than half of the 875 cooperative banks have been offering their customers the possibility to initiate instant payments. Since November 2018, customers have already been able to receive real-time transfers.

The technology for the smooth real-time transfer process comes from the north of Germany. With the consulting and software company PPI AG located in Hamburg, the leading institution DZ BANK and the IT provider for the cooperative banks Fiducia & GAD IT AG have found a reliable solution partner for the implementation of instant payments. PPI’s standard products TRAVIC-Payment Hub for the core processing and TRAVIC-Interbank for the connection to the EBA Clearing system RT1 represent sustainable solutions which fit perfectly into the banking infrastructure of DZ BANK and Fiducia & GAD IT A.

Instant payments soon standard

“We are happy about the corporate finance sector having expressed their confidence in PPI when it comes to the establishment of instant payments – and that we had the opportunity to prove that this confidence is justified by bringing the project to a successful end”, says Dr. Thorsten Völkel, CEO of PPI AG and responsible for the business sectors Payments and Software Development. “Instant payments have reached critical mass in Germany now. I am convinced that real time will soon become the standard for corporate and private transactions.”

High performance, fail-proof operation

Performance and fail-proof operation are the core attributes of an instant payments platform. The European Payments Council stipulates that payment providers who offer real-time transfers must be available around the clock, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year for processing these payments. The TRAVIC-Payment Hub guarantees an uninterrupted 24/7/365 operation, meets highest security standards and processes all transactions quickly and reliably – even during release changes. Load tests have shown that the PPI solution reaches a throughput of 1,000 transactions per second – including downstream processes like archiving and statistics. If single transactions are interrupted (for example, in case the system of the correspondent bank is not answering), specific algorithms avoid a possible bottleneck.

Bulk transfers already in 2019

The instant payments features for the cooperative banks will be enhanced step by step. Until the end of 2019, it will, for example, be possible to also use bulk transfers – a feature which will be of high benefit especially to corporate customers.