The International Payments Framework (IPF) was an initiative launched in 2010 to create a global framework for

payment processing A payment processor is a system that enables financial transactions, commonly employed by a merchant, to handle transactions with customers from various channels such as credit cards and debit cards or bank accounts. They are usually broken dow ...

by the ''International Payments Framework Association'', a

trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific Industry (economics), industry. Through collabor ...

headquartered in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, in the United States. The initiative and the association concluded in 2023 after achieving its objectives.

Overview

IPF creates rules, processes, and inter-member agreements that allow IPF's members to minimize the cost of cross-border payments. Its members include the

United States Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a series of ...

and other central banks, as well as other payments industry entities such as financial institutions and ACH operators.

Comparison

IPF is similar to the

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) in that both initiatives aim to facilitate international payments, base their standards on

ISO 20022 ISO 20022 is an ISO standard for electronic data interchange between financial institutions. It describes a metadata repository containing descriptions of messages and business processes, and a maintenance process for the repository content. T ...

, and involve mostly banks as their main participants. IPF differs from SEPA because IPF is global rather than limited to Europe; IPF is market-based rather than a political initiative; IPF involves more public entities, smaller banks, and clearing houses, rather than larger banks; and IPF superimposes a standard that allows existing national standards to communicate with each other rather than replacing them with a new standard. Unlike SEPA documentation, which is available on the European Payments Council's website, IPF documentation is not available to the public.

References

{{reflist, 2 Payment systems Financial metadata Financial routing standards Standards of the United States

Overview

Comparison

See also

References