As of 21 November, by using “SIA EasyWay”, banks and other payment service providers are able to manage real-time credit transfers and all SEPA payment and collection instruments
With the introduction of PSD2 in January 2018, the platform will also allow financial institutions and new market players to comply with the directive and develop innovative payment services
Milan, 21 November 2017 – SIA launches “SIA EasyWay”, the new digital platform which allows banksand other payment service providers (PSPs) to manage at European level the instant payments available from 21 November on EBA Clearing’s RT1 infrastructure developed by SIA, in addition to all other SEPA payment and collection instruments.
In fact, as of this date, citizens and companies in 34 countries in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) are able to transfer and receive sums of up to €15,000 per individual transaction in less than 10 seconds through a service available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in line with the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (transfer with real-time and irrevocable credit) scheme of the European Payments Council (EPC).
“SIA EasyWay” was created with the aim of helping financial institutions and PSPs with adoption and management of SEPA instruments (such as SCTs and SDDs), of instant payments and more generally of the new open banking scenario.
Through the SIAnet network, which guarantees secure and ultra-fast connections thanks to a new low latency messaging technology, “SIA EasyWay” provides access to EBA Clearing’s RT1 and is also ready to connect the other European Automated Clearing Houses (ACHs) and future instant payments platforms.
“SIA EasyWay” operates as a “hub”, simplifying the integration of instant payments with the financial institutions’ internal systems, reducing costs and activation times for new services. This is made possible thanks to an “end-to-end” service that covers the entire payment chain, from order management via all channels used by banks and payment service providers (such as mobile, internet, sales points, etc.), to business processing and access gateway.
The added value services available on “SIA EasyWay” include fraud monitoring and prevention, identification of suspicious transactions, as in the case of financing of terrorist activities, and the innovative “mirror account” which makes instant payments always possible, even during periods when the current account systems are unavailable (for example, during maintenance).
At the beginning of 2018, the introduction of Payments Service Directive 2 (PSD2) – which financial institutions must comply with – will favour the entry into the payments market of new non-bank players known as “Third Party Payment Service Providers” (TPPs). In this context, the “SIA EasyWay” platform will make it possible to guarantee compliance with the legislation and seize the opportunities generated by the development of new services.
SIA is European leader in the design, creation and management of technology infrastructures and services for Financial Institutions, Central Banks, Corporates and Public Administration bodies, in the areas of payments, cards, network services and capital markets. SIA Group provides its services in 46 countries, and also operates through its subsidiaries in Austria, Germany, Romania, Hungary and South Africa. The company also has branches in Belgium and the Netherlands, and representation offices in the UK and Poland.
In 2016, SIA managed 12.2 billion clearing transactions, 4.3 billion card transactions, 2.8 billion payments, 47.4 billion financial transactions and carried 654.3 terabytes of data on the network.
The Group is made up of eight companies: the parent SIA, the Italian companies Emmecom (innovative network applications), P4cards (card processing), Pi4Pay (advanced collection and payment services), and Ubiq (innovative technology solutions for marketing), Perago in South Africa, PforCards in Austria and SIA Central Europe in Hungary.
The Group, which currently has over 2,000 employees, closed 2016 with revenues of €468.2 million.
For more information: www.sia.eu – jiffy.sia.eu