07 September 2009 Company Announcements

 

VocaLink and KIR interoperability for SEPA Credit Transfers

VocaLink is working with Poland's national clearing house Krajowa Izba Rozliczeniowa, to establish a bilateral link for the exchange of Sepa Credit Transfer payments based on the EACHA interoperability standards.

The provision of reciprocal interconnection services between VocaLink's and KIR's respective clearing and settlement mechanisms allows the two organisations to mutually exchange Sepa compliant payment messages on behalf of their respective clients.

Although Poland is not currently a member of the Euro zone, KIR has seen the number of transactions in the EuroELIXIR system, which provides services to banks active in Poland for Sepa Credit Transfers, increase significantly in recent months.

Michal Szymanski, vice president of KIR, commented: "The ability to directly exchange payments with leading European payment processors within the EACHA framework will enable us to reduce processing costs and speed up the cross system message flow at the same time. We are continually improving our Sepa product portfolio and so establishing an EACHA link with VocaLink was a natural step forward for us."

Martin Wilson, chief commercial officer at VocaLink, added: "The bilateral interoperability agreement with KIR will enable the simple and efficient exchange of Sepa Credit Transfer payments between CSM communities. As a result, the banks of one community will receive a fast, cost-effective and low risk method of achieving reach with the banks of other communities."

The interoperability goal outlined by the EACHA framework fully supports the aims of Sepa and enables the simple and efficient exchange of Sepa payments between CSMs, banks and their customers. As both CSMs have more than one settlement cycle per day, customers of VocaLink and KIR will be able to make payments on a same day basis.