(22 May 2024 – Europe) Santander and Spanish digital payments company Iberpay have become the first to register for the European Payment Council’s (EPC) instant payment network for international account to account payments.
The network, named Allied OCT Inst, is specifically designed to support transactions where one of the parties is outside of the Single Euro Payments Area’s umbrella. As part of the network, Iberpay will assume the role of a clearing and settling mechanism for instant payments, and Santander will act as a processor, which allows real time payments between SEPA countries and the rest of the world.
“We believe the real-time scheme aligns well with market needs and policy objectives and it has the potential to revolutionise international instant payments, making a multilateral scheme-based approach available to a multilateral world,” said Giorgio Andreoli, director general of the European Payments Commission