European payments processor Equens says it has begun the bilateral exchange of Sepa payments with Spain's Iberpay and Italian processor Seceti using procedures established under the European Automated Clearing House Association (Eacha) framework.
The processors are the first from a group - which includes VocaLink - that inked an agreement in October 2007 to establish bilateral interoperability for the exchange of Sepa payments.
The group is using version 3.0 of the Technical Interoperability Framework, which was approved by Eacha in August last year. The framework was designed to help establish interoperability between banks and ACHs, as well as interoperability between European payment processors.
Michael Steinbach, chairman of Equens' board of directors says the interoperability will benefit clients in numerous ways: "We offer them cost efficiency by operating on existing infrastructures as well as speed through same day settlement thanks to synchronized cut-off times and freedom of choice."
Equens says the clearing and settlement of Sepa payments through bilateral links also complies with industry standards such as European Payment Council (EPC) Scheme Rulebooks and Implementation Guidelines, the Unifi message sets and the Peach/CSM framework.
More bilateral interoperability agreements between members of the original group are expected to go live within the coming weeks.