FIN.

ECB to develop a service for the settlement of instant payments by end of 2018

The Governing Council of the ECB has decided to develop a new service for the settlement of instant payments. The new service, TARGET instant payment settlement (TIPS), will enable citizens and firms to transfer money between each other in real time and will be available around the clock, 365 days a year.

The ECB is responsible for the smooth and effective functioning of payment systems in the euro area. It already developed TARGET2, the Eurosystem’s Real Time Gross Settlement System, used to process large-value payments in euro in real time. TIPS, as part of TARGET2, will help facilitate instant money transfers, offered via banks, so that citizens and firms can make instant retail payments across Europe.

See the ECB’s full explanatory article here.

TIPS is scheduled to start operating in November 2018.