The Deutsche Bundesbank offers its bank and non-bank customers a high performance and cost-effective procedure for the processing of non-urgent domestic and cross-border euro payments.
SEPA payments (SEPA credit transfers, SEPA core direct debits and SEPA business-to-business (B2B) direct debits) initiated by credit institutions are processed in the SEPA-Clearer (SCL) of the Retail Payment System (RPS). All domestic, non-SEPA-compliant payments in DTA format (exchange of data media) initiated by credit institutions are processed directly in the RPS. The Bundesbank pro-cedures for retail payments are used particularly by
medium-sized and small-scale credit institutions which do not belong to a giro network for the purpose of processing credit transfers and for the collection of cheque and direct debit payments.
Public authorities can also process SEPA payments via the Bundesbank, to which end they require access to the customer access mechanism (CAM SEPA). Public authority payments made in the DTA format can be submitted to the RPS directly. The Bundesbank is valued as a reliable and neutral partner by both the banking industry and the public sector for the processing of retail payments.
Processing of retail payments:
Services offered by the Deutsche Bundesbank
The Bundesbank’s SEPA-Clearer provides a competi-tively neutral, high-performance, cost-effective payment procedure for the processing of SEPA payments. All credit institutions participating in the SEPA schemes provided by the EPC can take advantage of the procedure in question. One condition for participation is that the credit institutions have signed the relevant Adherence Agreements, and have thus accepted the terms and conditions of the SEPA rule-books for credit transfers and direct debits and that they have converted their systems to enable the processing of SEPA payments.
Payments for credit institutions which are neither direct nor indirect participants in the SEPA-Clearer are forwarded by the Bundesbank via other clearing infrastructures. To this end, the Bundesbank is connected to the EBA Clea-ring STEP2 SCT and SDD services. In addition, the Bundes-bank has direct bilateral links to other European clearing houses including Clear-ing Service International of the Österreichische Nationalbank (OeNB), the Spanish clea-ring house Iberpay, the Dutch cleaclea-ring house Equens S.E. and the Bulgarian payment system operator Borica-Bankservice. This ensures that the Bundesbank is able to provide its participants with secure, Europe-wide access in order to process their SEPA payments.
Europe-wide accessibility
via the SEPA-Clearer
Europe-wide accessibility via the SEPA-Clearer
Euro Area
– 333 mn. inhabitants – 347 mn. Overnight deposits – 177 mn. payments per day – 6.357 payment service providers
EU-27
– 504 mn. inhabitants – 517 mn. Overnight deposits – 258 mn. Payments per day – 9.291 payment service providers
EPC* Plan for SEPA
EU-27 + EEA countries + Switzerland + Monaco – 518 mn. inhabitants
* European Payment Council
ECB Statistical Data Warehouse 23 August 2013 (statistics of 2012)
Payment processing in the SEPA-Clearer is effected in line with the TARGET2 calendar. German national, regional and local public holidays which are not TARGET2 holidays are not taken into account. Submitted payments are executed in accordance with the cut-off times applying to the respective submission window. A single proces-sing day consists of several cycles for procesproces-sing SEPA credit transfers and SEPA direct debits. The values of successfully processed payments are settled on accounts in the TARGET2 payments module. If desired, a participant can also use a settlement agent. The SEPA credit trans-fers and SEPA direct debits are settled in accordance with the gross coverage principle on the basis of the submitted and delivered logical files.
At the end of every banking business day (around 22.00), every participant receives a separate daily reconciliation report for each of the SEPA-Clearer services used (SEPA credit transfers, SEPA core direct debits, SEPA B2B direct debits). These reports give a summary of the files for credit transfers and direct debits which have been sub-mitted. When delivering SEPA payments, account is taken of any routing order which may have been set up based on the Bank Identifier Code (BIC). In this context, separate routings may be set up for SEPA credit transfers and SEPA direct debits. Both inbound and outbound communication occurs exclusively by means of data telecommunication via SWIFTNet FileAct or EBICS (Elec-tronic Banking Internet Communication Standard).
Payment processing
in the SEPA-Clearer
Processing of SEPA credit transfers via the SEPA-Clearer1
The values of processed SEPA credit transfers are deli-vered and settled directly after processing via the res-pective transmission window. The values of SEPA credit transfers submitted after 20.00 on the previous day and by 08.00 on the current banking business day, are deli-vered and settled from 08.15 onwards using the date of the current banking business day. SEPA credit trans-fers submitted between 08.00 and 10.00 are delivered and settled as of around 10.15 while those submitted between 10.00 and 13.00 are deliv-ered and settled as of around 13.15 using the date of the current banking business day. SEPA credit transfers submitted between 13.00 and 15.00 of the current banking business day are delivered and settled as of around 15.15. SEPA credit transfers submitted between 15.00 and 20.00 are delivered on that same day from around 20.15 onwards. These transactions are settled with the value date of the next banking business day.
Communication infrastructure for the processing of SEPA-transactions via SEPA-Clearer
Credit
institution CSM
Credit institution
SWIFTNet FileAct EBICS
Processing of SEPA credit transfers via the SEPA-Clearer
ISD = Interbank Settlement Date
20.00 24.00 8.00 10.00 13.00 15.00 20.00 Delivery Delivery Submission Settlement Settlement Delivery Submission Settlement Delivery Submission Settlement Delivery Settlement Submission ISD T+1 / T Window 1 ISD T Window 2 ISD T Fenster 3 ISD T Window 4 ISD T + 1 Window 5 Submission Delivery Delivery Settlement Settlement CSM CSM Submission Submission
Processing of SEPA direct debits via the SEPA-Clearer
20.00 10.00 16.45 20.00
Delivery
Settlement Settlement Settlement CSM
Processing of SEPA direct debits via the SEPA-Clearer1
With regard to the processing of SEPA direct debits, it should be noted that, owing to the design of the SEPA direct debit scheme, the delivery and settlement of pay-ment messages is usually handled at different times. SEPA direct debits submitted between 10.00 and 20.00 on the current banking business day are delivered on the current banking business day from around 20.15 onwards. SEPA direct debits submitted after 20.00 on
Only R-Transactions after Settlement
Only R-Transactions after Settlement
Original-Transactions and R-Transactions before and after Settlement Submission Delivery Submission Delivery
Until euro payments have been converted to the SEPA payment format, the Deutsche Bundesbank will continue to offer its customers a clearing and settlement service for payments in DTA format in the RPS.
All Bundesbank account holders are eligible to partici-pate in the file-oriented RPS procedure. The gross
sett-lement procedure used means that the payee is not exposed to any credit risk. The settlement of payments is float-free. Each working day around 11.3 million transactions are processed (amounting to almost € 9.2 billion), of which approximately 35 % are credit trans- fers and roughly 65 % are collection orders for direct debits and converted cheques.
DTA clearing
in the Retail Payment System (RPS)
1 The processing and cut-off times refer to the processing of SEPA payments from credit institutions. In the case of non-banks, the processing and cut-off times of the Customer Access Mechanism (CAM-SEPA) apply.
the preceding business day and by 10.00 on the current business day are delivered on the current banking business day from around 10.15 onwards.
The values of SEPA direct debits that have already been delivered are settled at around 20.15 on the business day which precedes the banking business day specified in the data record in the payment message (Interbank Settlement Date, ISD).
Cut-off Times Abwicklung von Zahlungen im EMZ
19:00 20:00 21:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 13:00
1st Processing Day 2nd Processing Day
Evening Processing
Morning Processing
Settlement + Delivery
Settlement + Delivery Credit transfers + Collection
Credit transfers + Collection items
Settlement + Delivery Image based Check Collection Clearing Datas
Both inbound and outbound communication by credit institutions with the RPS occurs exclusively by means of data telecommunication via SWIFTNet FileAct or EBICS (Electronic Banking Internet Communication Standard).
Payments are processed in several processing windows. Payments submitted between 09.00 and 20.00 are pro-cessed during the evening processing window, subse-quent to which their values are settled using the value date of the next business day and the file is delivered to the respective recipient.
The morning processing window is used to process any payments submitted between 20.00 and 09.00 of the following day. These payment transactions are settled and delivered from 09.00 onwards. This gives partici-pants the opportunity to immediately forward ments which arrive very late (for example, card pay-ments) so as to enable sameday processing, settlement and delivery.
Payment processing in the RPS
Evening Processing – Credit Transfers – Collection items Morning Processing – Credit Transfers – Collection items
Clearing data recors for payments from the Image based Check collection procedure
The values of all submitted and delivered payments pro-cessed in the RPS are settled on a file basis (gross sett-lement) using the accounts in the TARGET2 payments module (credit institutions) or accounts held with the Bundesbank (public authorities). The RPS also allows to specify a settlement agent.
20:00
09:00
The Bundesbank charges a fee of € 0.0025 per data record for payments that are submitted by credit insti-tutions via data telecommunication to the SEPA-Clearer. This fee also applies if payments from the Bundesbank clearing procedure are forwarded via other clearing infrastructures.
For payments that are submitted by credit institutions via data telecommunication to the RPS the Bundesbank currently also charges a fee of € 0.0025 per data record. From 3rd February 2014 (20.00) on different fees for SCT and SDD apply:
– for collection items the fee of € 0.0025 per submit-ted data record remains constant
– for Credit transfers the fee will be increased to € 0,80 per submitted data record
The prices stated in the current Bundesbank price schedule apply for those public authorities which are not exempted from charges.
The participation and registration fees for indirect parti-cipation in the EBA Clearing STEP2 services via the direct participant Deutsche Bundesbank are passed on to the participants.
Fees
For more information, visit www.bundesbank.de C Payment systems Tel: +49 (0)69 9566-8877 – crm.zahlungsverkehr@bundesbank.de
