EBA Clearing is a provider of pan-European payment infrastructure wholly owned by shareholders that consist of major European banks. It derives its name from the Euro Banking Association which was instrumental in its establishment in June 1998, but has always been a separate organization. EBA Clearing owns and operates major payment infrastructure in Europe for Euro payments between banks, including EURO1 for high value payments, STEP1 for payments of small and medium-sized banks, STEP2-T, a pan-European automated clearing house (PE-ACH), and RT1 for

instant payment Instant payment (sometimes referred to as real-time payment or faster payment) is a method of electronic funds transfer, allowing for almost immediate transfer of money between bank accounts. This was in contrast to the previous transfer times o ...

s. Both EURO1 and STEP2-T have been identified as

Systemically Important Payment System A Systemically Important Payment System (SIPS) is a payment systems whose failure could potentially endanger the operation of the whole economy. In general, these are the major payment clearing systems or real-time gross settlement systems of indi ...

s by the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#International ...

in 2014, together with

TARGET2 TARGET2 was the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system for the Eurozone from its phased introduction in 2007-2008 until its replacement with T2 in March 2023. As such, it was one of the Eurosystem's TARGET Services, replacing the original TAR ...

and CORE(FR). EBA Clearing is based in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and has representative offices in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. Given their pan-European significance, both EURO1 and STEP2-T are under direct oversight by the

History

The origin of EBA Clearing is work by the Legal Task Force of the Euro Banking Association (EBA), which in February 1997 started defining the legal basis for EURO1. Formally created in June 1998, its initial mission was to create and operate the EURO1 platform which went live on , the same day as

TARGET Target may refer to: Warfare and shooting * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artille ...

. In March 2013, EBA Clearing launched MyBank, an e-authorisation solution for

online payment An e-commerce payment system (or an electronic payment system) facilitates the acceptance of electronic payment for offline transfer, also known as a subcomponent of electronic data interchange (EDI), e-commerce payment systems have become increa ...

s, which is geared at facilitating the growth of e-commerce across Europe. In 2016, banks from nine countries agreed to create RT1, EBA Clearing's pan-European infrastructure for

s in Euro, The system went live in November 2017.

Payment systems

EURO1

EURO1 is a large-value deferred

net settlement A net settlement is a payment system used for inter-bank transactions. It is the process by which banks calculate the collective total of all transactions through designated times each day. In an inter-bank payment system using net settlement, deb ...

(DNS) payment system, owned and operated by EBA Clearing, with a real-time finality concept that reduces but does not eliminate

settlement risk Settlement risk, also known as delivery risk or counterparty risk, is the risk that a counterparty (or intermediary agent) fails to deliver a security or its value in cash as per agreement when the security was traded after the other counterpart ...

. EURO1 settles transactions of high priority and urgency, and primarily of large amount, albeit typically those with lesser urgency and lesser amount than is the case on the T2 platform operated by the

Eurosystem The Eurosystem is the monetary authority of the eurozone, the collective of European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their sole official currency. The European Central Bank (ECB) has, under Article 16 of its Statute,

which also has a different cost structure. EURO1 operates on a multilateral net basis, meaning that it continuously adjusts the accounts of the participant banks as they make payments for each other's customers. Payments are settled in real time with finality. EURO1 is open to banks that have a registered address or branch in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

and fulfil a number of additional requirements, including membership in the Euro Banking Association. It is subject to German law (current account principle/single obligation structure) and is based on a messaging and IT infrastructure provided by

SWIFT Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIF ...

STEP1

STEP1 is a payment service of EBA Clearing that started in 2000. It is aimed at small and medium-sized banks for single euro payments of high priority and urgency. The technical infrastructure is the same as that of the EURO1 system, both use the messaging and IT infrastructure of SWIFT.

STEP2

STEP2 was put into operation in 2003 in partnership with Italian

payment system A payment system is any system used to settle financial transactions through the transfer of monetary value. This includes the institutions, payment instruments such as payment cards, people, rules, procedures, standards, and technologies that ...

provider

SIA S.p.A. SIA S.p.A. is an Italian company operating in the area of ICT, providing services to the banking and finance sector in addition to platforms for financial markets and e-payment services. History The company was founded in 1977 as ''Società In ...

It processes mass payments in

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

s. Specifically, the umbrella STEP2 system (known as STEP2-T) comprises three

Single Euro Payments Area The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is a payment integration initiative of the European Union for simplification of bank transfers denominated in euros. , there were 41 members in SEPA, consisting of the 27 member states of the European Union ...

(SEPA) services: SEPA Credit Transfer (STEP2 SCT), SEPA Direct Debit Core (STEP2 SDD Core), and SEPA Direct Debit Business-to-Business (STEP2 SDD B2B). STEP2-T is a pan-European automated clearing house (PE-ACH), meaning that it complies with the corresponding principles set by the

European Payments Council The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is a payment integration initiative of the European Union for simplification of bank transfers denominated in euros. , there were 41 members in SEPA, consisting of the 27 member states of the European Union ...

(EPC). The STEP2 SCT service has been available from the beginning of SEPA on 28 January 2008 across all SEPA countries. The STEP2 SDD Core service started on 2 November 2009, the transposition date of the

Payment Services Directive The Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2, Directive (EU) 2015/2366, which replaced the Payment Services Directive (PSD), Directive 2007/64/EC) is an EU Directive, administered by the European Commission (Directorate General Internal Market) t ...

, as well as STEP2 SDD B2B. The STEP2-T platform reaches nearly 100 percent of all banks that have signed the SCT and SDD Scheme Adherence Agreements of the EPC. By the early 2020s, STEP2-T had become the leading retail payment system in the euro area based on value.

MyBank

MyBank is a pan-European e-authorisation and Online Banking ePayments service that EBA Clearing launched in March 2013. The solution enables customers across Europe to pay for their online purchases via their regular online or mobile banking environment without having to disclose confidential data to the merchant or other third parties. The solution can be used for authorising SEPA Credit Transfers as well as the creation of SDD mandates. At a later stage, MyBank may also be used for transactions in currencies other than euro or for e-identity services. MyBank is owned and managed by PRETA S.A.S., a wholly owned subsidiary of EBA Clearing.

RT1

RT1 is a pan-European

system that provides the European payments industry with a pan-European infrastructure platform for real-time payments in euro under the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme. Launched on 21 November 2017, the RT1 fast payment system allows commercial banks to offer fast payments through this system to their customers throughout the Eurozone.

Shareholders

As of end-2024, the following banks were indicated as shareholders on the EBA Clearing website: * ABN AMRO *

Allied Irish Banks Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c. is one of the so-called Big Four (banking)#Ireland, Big Four commercial banks in the Republic of Ireland. AIB offers a full range of personal, business and corporate banking services. The bank also offers a range of ge ...

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A. (), known as BMPS or just MPS, is an Italian bank. Tracing its history to a mount of piety founded in 1472 () and established in its present form in 1624 (), it is the world's List of oldest banks, oldest ...

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (), better known by its initialism BBVA, is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Bilbao, with operative offices in Madrid. It is one of the largest financial institutions in the world, ...

Banco BPM Banco BPM S.p.A. is an Italian bank that commenced operations on 1 January 2017, by the merger (approved by the board of directors on 24 May 2016) of Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare di Milano (BPM). The bank is the third largest retail and cor ...

Banco Comercial Português Banco Comercial Português (BCP, ) is a Portuguese bank that was founded in 1985 and is the largest private bank in the country. BCP is a member of the Euronext 100 stock index and its current chief executive officer is Miguel Maya Dias Pinheiro ...

Banco Sabadell Banco de Sabadell, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational financial services company headquartered in Sabadell, Catalonia. It is the 4th-largest Spanish banking group. It includes several banks, brands, subsidiaries and associated banks. It is a uni ...

Banco Santander Banco Santander S.A. trading as Santander Group ( , , ), is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Santander, with operative offices in Madrid. Additionally, Santander maintains a presence in most global financial centres ...

* Bank of America Europe *

Banque et Caisse d'Épargne de l'État The (, ''State Bank and Savings Bank''), also known by its Luxembourgish name Spuerkeess (), is the leading national financial institution founded in 1856 and governed by the law of 24 March 1989. Spuerkeess is a commercial bank wholly owned by ...

* Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel *

Banque Internationale à Luxembourg Banque Internationale à Luxembourg S.A. (BIL, "International Bank in Luxembourg": Luxembourgish: ''International Bank zu Lëtzebuerg'') is the oldest private bank in Luxembourg. It offers commercial and corporate banking services, and was the co ...

Barclays Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

BNP Paribas BNP Paribas (; sometimes referred to as BNPP or BNP) is a French multinational universal bank and financial services holding company headquartered in Paris. It was founded in 2000 from the merger of two of France's foremost financial instituti ...

BPCE BPCE (for Banque Populaire Caisse d'Epargne) is a major French banking group formed by the 2009 merger of two major retail banking groups, Groupe Caisse d'Épargne and Groupe Banque Populaire. As of 2021, it was France's fourth-largest bank, the ...

CaixaBank CaixaBank, S.A. (), formerly Criteria CaixaCorp, is a Spanish multinational financial services company. CaixaBank is based in Valencia, with operative offices in Barcelona and Madrid. It is Spain's third-largest lender by market value, after Ban ...

Citibank Europe Citibank Europe plc, is a subsidiary of Citigroup that operates in Europe. It is headquartered in Ireland. History Citibank commenced operations in Ireland in 1965. In 2015, the division shifted its retail banking headquarters from London to D ...

Commerzbank The Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft (shortly known as Commerzbank AG or Commerzbank ) is a European Financial institution, banking institution headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. It offers services to private and entrepreneurial c ...

Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (Crédit Agricole CIB), known as Crédit Agricole Indosuez from 1996 to 2004 and as Calyon from 2004 to 2010, is the corporate and investment banking entity of the Crédit Agricole banking and financ ...

Danske Bank Danske Bank A/S (, ) is a Danish multinational banking and financial services corporation. Headquartered in Copenhagen, it is the largest bank in Denmark and a major retail bank in the northern European region with over 5 million retail custome ...

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

DNB ASA DNB Bank ASA (formerly DnB NOR ASA) is Norway's largest financial services group, with total combined assets of more than NOK 3.6 trillion and a market capitalisation NOK 400 billion as of 2024. DNB's head office is located in Oslo. The two la ...

DZ Bank DZ Bank AG () is the second largest bank in Germany by asset size and the central institution for around 700 cooperative banks and their around 7,200 branch offices. Within that Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken, w ...

Erste Group Bank Erste Group Bank AG (shortened version Erste Group) is an Austrian financial service provider. It is one of the largest financial service providers in Central and Eastern Europe serving more than 16 million clients in over 2,000 branches in seven ...

HSBC Continental Europe HSBC Continental Europe, known until December 2020 as HSBC France SA, is a subsidiary of HSBC, headquartered in Paris. It has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in late 2014, a ...

ING Bank ING Group N.V. () is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Amsterdam. Its primary businesses are retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, wholesale banking, private ban ...

Intesa Sanpaolo Intesa Sanpaolo Società per azioni, S.p.A. is an Italian international banking group. It is Italy's largest bank by total assets and the world's 27th largest. It was formed through the merger of Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI in 2007, but has a ...

* JPMorgan AG *

KBC Bank KBC Group N.V. is a Belgian universal multi-channel bank-insurer, focusing on private clients and small and medium-sized enterprises in Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. It was created in 1998 through the merger of Kredi ...

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (, LBBW) is a universal bank and the Landesbank for some Federal States of Germany (Baden-Württemberg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Sachsen). As of 2018, it is Germany's biggest state-backed landesbank lender. LBBW is a full-s ...

* Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen * MUFG Bank Ltd *

National Bank of Greece The National Bank of Greece (NBG; ) is a banking and financial services company with its headquarters in Athens, Greece. Founded in 1841 as the newly independent country's first financial institution, it has long been the largest Greek bank, a ...

National Westminster Bank National Westminster Bank, trading as NatWest, is a major retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank. In 2000, it becam ...

Nordea Nordea Bank Abp, commonly referred to as Nordea, is a Nordic financial services group operating in northern Europe with headquarters in Helsinki, Finland. The name is a blend of the words "Nordic" and "idea". The Nordic countries are considered ...

Novo Banco Novo Banco, SA, trading as Novobanco (, ), is a major Portuguese financial bank headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal. Following the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in late 2014, Novobanco has been designated as a Significant Institut ...

* OP Corporate Bank *

OTP Bank OTP Bank Group is the largest commercial bank of Hungary and one of the largest independent financial service providers in Central and Eastern Europe, with banking services for private individuals and corporate clients. The OTP Group comprises su ...

Rabobank Rabobank (; full name: ''Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A.'') is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Utrecht, Netherlands. The group comprises 89 local Dutch Rabobanks (2019), a central organisation (Raboban ...

Raiffeisen Bank International Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) is a key entity of the decentralized Raiffeisen Banking Group in Austria, acting both as the latter's domestic central financial entity and as the holding company for all the group's operations outside of Aus ...

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (; lit. "Scandinavian Private Bank"), abbreviated SEB, is a Swedish bank headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In Sweden and the Baltic countries, SEB has a full financial service offering. In Denmark, Finland, Nor ...

Société Générale Société Générale S.A. (), colloquially known in English-speaking countries as SocGen (), is a French multinational universal bank and financial services company founded in 1864. It is registered in downtown Paris and headquartered nearby i ...

* Standard Chartered Bank AG *

Svenska Handelsbanken Svenska Handelsbanken AB is a leading Nordic bank with international operations, providing a comprehensive range of financial services including corporate banking, investment banking, trading, and consumer banking such as loans, savings, and insu ...

Swedbank Swedbank AB is a Swedish multinational banking group headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. It operates primarily in the Nordic and Baltic regions, offering services such as retail banking, asset management and other financial services. Swedbank ...

UBS UBS Group AG (stylized simply as UBS) is a multinational investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland, with headquarters in both Zurich and Basel. It holds a strong foothold in all major financial centres as the ...

UniCredit Bank GmbH HypoVereinsbank (HVB), legally registered since late 2008 as UniCredit Bank GmbH, is a significant bank in Germany headquartered in Munich. It has been part of the Milan-based UniCredit group since 2005, and fully owned by it since 2008. As a c ...

UniCredit UniCredit S.p.A. (formerly UniCredito Italiano S.p.A.) is an Italian multinational banking group headquartered in Milan. It is a systemically important bank (according to the list provided by the Financial Stability Board in 2022) and the world' ...

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.ebaclearing.eu/ Banking in the European Union Business and finance professional associations Payment networks