Clear Junction will offer support for Sepa Instant, the payment clearing scheme that lets clients make euro payments instantly between any bank account in the EU.
London-based Clear Junction serves payment intermediaries and banks worldwide. By implementing SEPA Instant the fintech company joins the European banking regulator’s initiative to promote real time payment infrastructure to ease transfers between financial institutions across EU states. Launched in Nov. 2017, SEPA Instant provides for crediting payees in less than 10 seconds at any time, including weekend and holidays.
“This upgrade is a logical expansion of our other services provided along with the Clear Junction correspondent accounts: SEPA, FasterPayments, BACS, and CHAPS,” said Dima Kats, Clear Junction’s CEO. “It is important for us to join SEPA Instant to answer the expectations of our institutional clients. Many FinTechs that use our services focus in working with retail clients; access to real-time payment infrastructures is crucial for them.”
The firm expects that the upcoming transaction limit increase to €100,000 will make the scheme relevant to liquidity providers having accounts with Clear Junction.
According to the European Payments Association, 2,263 payment service providers have already joined SEPA Instant, meaning that 56% of European PSPs can transact in real time. Instant payments are the closest substitute to cash, and the transfer of money is instantaneously available to the receiver. Adoption of the fast payment scheme is on the rise as a result of the recent increase in cash-free and contactless payments.
“Our major target audience for SEPA Instant are challenger banks including those from outside the EU that can use our services for letting their customers make payments in EUR and GBP with their counter-parties in the EU and UK,” added Mr Kats. “Another market is the growing number of consumer lending services with fully automated processes for borrower scoring: with real-time payments such as SEPA Instant and FasterPayments the loans can be approved and provided literally around-the-clock.”
Examples of how SEPA Instant is used in retail payments include person-to-person transfers when sending money to someone, payments to merchants where SEPA Instant is expected to compete with card schemes, and e-wallet top-ups. The maximum amount that can be sent via SEPA Instant is currently €15,000, but that will be increased to €100,000 this coming July. The countries that have been quickest to adopt SEPA Instant are Germany, Austria and Spain.