As the industry readies itself for major changes to Europe’s payments infrastructure, we enter the development phase for the EURO1 migration to a richer data standard.
Swift and EBA CLEARING are working together on the development phase for the migration of the large-value, European payment system, EURO1, to the ISO 20022 standard. The collaboration builds on our 20-year partnership with EBA CLEARING and marks the next step in a pan-European payments transformation journey.
EURO1 is the only private sector large-value payment system for single same-day euro transactions at a pan-European level. It has been identified as a systemically important payment system (SIPS) by the European Central Bank.
The migration of EURO1 is due to take place in November 2021, the same deadline as the migration of the Eurosystem’s TARGET2 platform to ISO 20022. Throughout the development phase we will work with EBA CLEARING to align specifications and milestones, minimising disruption to market participants and ensuring seamless intra-day switching between both the EURO1 and TARGET2 payment systems.
Better data mean better payments
ISO 20022 creates a new language and structure for payments information, enabling the exchange of more and higher quality data that improves efficiency, compliance and client experiences. Payment systems of all reserve currencies globally are moving to the standard, and Swift has put in place a robust programme to facilitate community-wide adoption.
Alain Raes, Chief Business Development Officer, Swift said: “The migration to ISO 20022 is a significant inflection point in the payments industry that promises a new era of possibilities. We are pleased to work with EBA CLEARING to unlock the potential and further a partnership of innovation that spans two decades. EURO1 users can count on us to support them throughout and deliver the same robust security, resilience and reliability that are hallmarks of the Swift network.”
A major step in the modernisation of cross-border payments
Swift has provided the messaging layer for EURO1 and served as processing agent for the system operated by EBA CLEARING since its launch in January 1999.
The migration to ISO 20022 is part of a larger-scale programme we announced with EBA CLEARING last year, following a comprehensive consultation with EURO1 users. The project will evolve EURO1 in line with user expectations while maintaining the system’s current benefits, such as liquidity efficiency, immediate payment finality, cost-effectiveness and added resilience for high-value payments. The first deliverables, including a dashboard to enhance liquidity monitoring capabilities of EURO1 users, will be implemented before the end of 2019.
Erwin Kulk, Head of Service Development and Management, EBA CLEARING, said: “Since its launch in 1999, EURO1 has generated substantial cost savings for its participants and, with the migration to ISO 20022, it will be able to continue to do so in the future. We are striving to keep the EURO1-related efforts to a strict minimum for our users. To this effect, we are pleased that we are ready to move forward with our system developments in time and in maximal alignment with TARGET2, together with our EURO1 users and our long-standing EURO1 technology partner Swift.”
