Transfer in seconds: ECB launches new payment service

The European Central Bank (ECB) will start on Friday a service that allows Bank customers around-the-clock and throughout the year in seconds quick money from one country to another can transfer. With the TIPS (Target Instant Payment Settlement) referred to Service the ECB’s long-established payment service providers such as Visa or Mastercard, as well as new payment services such as Google Pay or Apple wants to make Pay competitive.

Although there are already some offers on the national and European level, such as, for example, Paylib in France or RT1 of the Euro Banking Association (EBA), based in Paris. These are mostly national in scope or have not, said the for TIPS competent ECB-General Director Marc Bayle de Jessé.

“The biggest difference to existing payment solutions, TIPS, transfers immediately in Central Bank money,” he says. The accelerating cross-border payment traffic is enormous, because there are many power stations superfluous. The business partners do not have the risk that the payment could not be covered.

System for Fintechs open

the Eight banks should be at the beginning. In principle, all banks and payment services can join that already have an account at the ECB. Other services without an account should, in turn, can connect via participating banks. The System is also for Fintechs open. The Central Bank is waving, with very low charges: In the first two years, each transaction costs a flat rate of only 0.2 cents.

How much banks charge to their customers – dealers and end – users for the new service, you can define yourself. Bayle de Jessé expected that as a result, prices for Pay will generally drop significantly below the level of today’s costs. For retailers Girokarten up to 0.2 percent of the procurement value; in the case of credit cards it are up to 0.3 percent. In the case of a 100 Euro shopping value of 20 to 30 cents.

An ECB forecast that could in the Eurozone could be done within five years, every day about ten million instant payments, which is equivalent to about one-tenth of the daily transactions with all types of payment cards. And even if the TIPS start initially only as a Service for the Euro-zone, it would be according to the ECB no Problem to integrate other currencies.