Spain connects to the European Request to Pay scheme

FACTS

• A new association has been created around the Request To Pay. The Spanish clearing house Iberpay has just announced that it has worked with EBA Clearing to present an interoperable payment service.

• Interoperability of services is a key to the democratization of innovative payment solutions. EBA Clearing and Iberpay are setting an example by their partnership and illustrating the still emerging potential of RtoP services.

• Iberpay will offer payment functionalities that comply with the new SEPA Request to Pay Scheme (SRTP) created by the European Payments Council (EPC).

• These new services are primarily aimed at Payment Service Providers (PSPs) who will now be able to rely on the technical infrastructure developed by Iberpay and EBA Clearing to process end-to-end SRTP payments in a fraction of a second and across Europe.

CHALLENGES

• Accelerating RtP: Spanish clearing house Iberpay and pan-European interbank payment infrastructure provider EBA Clearing are merging their work and combining their strength to move to the next level at a time when payments are undergoing a slow but profound transformation around the world. This important step will make possible a multitude of use cases that will rely on instantaneous transfers.

• A European first: Iberpay and EBA Clearing are in fact the first European infrastructure providers ready to provide this new functionality. Although Mastercard has a similar initiative in the UK, based on the Pay.UK scheme, it is not based on the European scheme.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• In the face of EPI or the PSP alliance, the combination of EBA Clearing and Iberpay should also play an important role in the renewal of payments on a European and global scale.

• Recall that Iberpay processed 25 million instant transfers in 2019; today, this flow is around 1.1 million instant transfers processed each day (38% of the total volume of transfers processed in the country), confirming that Spain has fully embraced this new payment method.

KEY FIGURES

Iberpay

• 2005: creation
• 13 major Spanish banks involved
• 2.2 billion payment transactions processed in 2020 for a total amount of 1.91 billion euros

EBA Clearing

• 1998: creation
• 48 European banks involved