Banking Circle selects SIA to launch an instant payments service in Europe

By Joy Dumasia

Banking Circle, the Payments Bank for the new economy, has selected SIA, a leading European hi-tech company in payment services and infrastructures, controlled by CDP Equity, to launch its new instant payments service in Europe TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) service of the Eurosystem.

SIAnet, the ultra-fast fibre optic network infrastructure, Banking Circle enables European financial institutions and corporates to execute instant payments in less than 10 seconds with a maximum amount currently set at 100,000 euros per individual transaction, 24/7, all year long, in line with the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme of the European Payments Council (EPC).

The partnership with SIA also allows Banking Circle customers to benefit from the concession granted by the European Central Bank to SIA and Colt as Network Service Providers for ESMIG (Eurosystem Single Market Infrastructure Gateway). The high-speed, secure and low-latency network infrastructure SIAnet is specially designed to meet the specific requirements of instant payments regarding security, reliability, and performance. It represents a single access channel to the leading national and international payment platforms.

Cristina Astore, SIA’s Northwest Europe and DACH Region Sales Director, said: “We’re very proud to contribute to the launch of Banking Circle’s new instant payments service in the European market because it represents another remarkable success of our network services offering at international level. Thanks to the perfect integration of our network with the major public cloud providers on the market, the new digital payment service was up and running in just a few months and is now available for all current and future Banking Circle customers.”

Recently, IBS Intelligence reported that the Full-service Payment Service Provider (PSP) of local e-payment solutions, Paymaster24, has selected Banking Circle to enhance its service proposition for merchants. The partnership with Banking Circle will help Paymaster24 speed up payments and offer different currencies to its merchant customers.