European banks were poised to unveil plans for a new cross-border
payment system as Computer Weekly went to press.
An announcement is expected to be made within the next week,
following a meeting of representatives from European banks and
industry bodies in Brussels earlier this week. Their plans - which
come in response to new European regulations to reduce the cost of
transferring money across international borders - could have major
implications for IT departments at UK banks.
European Commission regulations will require bank charges for
cross-border payments in the euro zone to be the same as those for
similar domestic transactions.
The regulations, which were adopted by the European Parliament in
December, are due to come into force in July.
Banking bodies believe the rules could lead to banks having to
develop a new clearing house or link existing clearing systems to
create a European-wide payment infrastructure and real-time payment
system.
According to the European Central Bank, a technology infrastructure
to support cheaper cross-border money transfers could be
implemented two years after consensus is reached within the banking
industry.
Analysts have advised IT managers at UK banks, many of which still
have largely manual systems for processing low-value, cross-border
payments, to get involved in discussions to shape the new
infrastructure. If they do not, they run the risk of having systems
in which they had no input forced upon them at a later date.
If European banks decide to link their domestic clearing houses,
they will require some standardisation of message protocols.
Target, an existing real-time payment service, could be used to
help link systems in different countries.
The more radical option of developing a single European clearing
house for cross-border payments would be a massive IT project, and
is thought to be less likely.
nick.huber@rbi.co.uk