Santander and Iberpay in Spain join EPC’s OCT Inst scheme as inaugural participants
Spanish banking giant Santander and payment services firm Iberpay have been named as the first participants of the One-Leg Out (OLO) Instant Credit Transfer (OCT Inst) scheme being headed by the European Payments Council (EPC).
Santander and Iberpay join EPC’s OCT Inst scheme
The scheme seeks to establish the frameworks and processes necessary to facilitate account-to-account (A2A) payments internationally with a range of different currencies. It is recognised as the first initiative by the EPC to support transactions where only one payment service provider is situated within the geographical scope of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), and first went live last November.
As inaugural participants, Iberpay will serve as the clearing and settlement mechanism (CSM), through Santander, for OCT Inst transactions. Iberpay has been given the role of OCT Inst Processor, which will see the firm provide the infrastructure and services necessary for processing international cross-currency instant transfers under the scheme.
The pair say they have completed the first international instant transfers through OCT Inst this month. Full service adoption among banks in Spain is set for October, with remaining banks to connect to Iberpay’s service “over the coming months”.
Juan Luis Encinas, CEO at Iberpay, says the firm’s involvement in the scheme will enable its banking partners to offer “new innovative services, to improve the customer experience and to remain highly competitive”, with the company aiming to “enhance international cross-currency payments in terms of processing speed, 24×7 operation, information transparency, accessibility and costs reduction”.
Giorgio Andreoli, director general of the EPC, adds that OCT Inst will help make “a multilateral scheme-based approach available to a multilateral world”.
In the meantime, the EPC is inviting “anyone interested in the evolution of the OCT Inst scheme” to engage with its public consultation, which closes on 9 June.
