New instant payments platform for PSPs comes to Italy
Nets and ICBPI team up for a new instant payments scheme – mobile P2P payments will be the initial focus
Nets and Istituto Centrale delle Banche Popolari Italiane (ICBPI) have joined forces to launch an instant payments solution in Italy.
The new offering is set to go live in Q1 next year.
It will be based on Nets’ RealTime24/7 platform and will serve the Italian payment service providers (PSPs).
“We will provide to the Italian banking community a reliable and customisable solution, interoperable and reachable at European level, scalable, and definitely designed to meet heterogeneous payments use types of today, such as any P2P apps already on the market, and many others of tomorrow,” states Salvatore Borgese, payment services director at ICBPI.
The RealTime24/7 platform is already running in a similar set-up in Denmark, and this was used as a reference site, Nets says.
In Italy, the initial focus will be on mobile person-to-person (P2P) payments.
The solution is based on the ISO 20022 and SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) standards. Nets states that its system is also “fully compliant” with the upcoming pan-European SCT Inst scheme, created by the European Payments Council (EPC).
Borgese observes that “innovation in payment services is an increasingly strategic driver of economic growth in Italy and Europe. Instant payments, also with a view to PSD2, is one of the most significant breakthroughs in this scenario.”
Stig Korsgaard, CSO, clearing services, Nets, comments that this deal “marks an important step for Nets’ expansion outside the Nordic region and into other European countries”.
Nets is a Nordic provider of payments, cards and information services, with its HQ based in Copenhagen. The company has been known as Nets since 2009, but has a much longer history that goes back to 1968. Nets employs 2,000+ across five countries.
ICBPI is a Milan-based bank that specialises in payments. It owns a domestic card company, CartaSi.
