Euro Banking Association

The Euro Banking Association ( EBA, not to be confused with the European Banking Authority (EBA ) and the European Banking Authority) is an association of nearly 200 European banks and today plays a key role in the financial industry, especially as the initiator of new European payment systems and as a developer their infrastructure. The aim of the EBA was and is the creation of a single European market in this area.

History and organization

When it was founded in Paris in 1985 was the Euro Banking Association ( EBA) of 19 members: 18 commercial banks and the European Investment Bank. The European Commission supported this foundation as well as the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Since then, membership has grown to almost 200: the Institute come from all countries of the European Union as well as Norway, Switzerland, Australia, China, India, Japan, the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates. First, the EBA understood primarily as a discussion forum for payment specialists. The agenda included the promotion of the European currency unit and the development and management of a clearing system within Europe. To date, the makers of the European financial industry to discuss regular EBA events current issues. The association then speaks of an opinion which may be addressed to national, European or international authorities. In the communication process with regulatory and industrial institutions, EBA shall participate as well as in the formulation of business practices for payment transactions on economic branch level. This carries the EBA significantly to the standardization of payment methods the banks in each country. Even on the easy introduction of the European tender euro EBA was fundamentally involved. Once a year the EBA organized a large conference payments, the EBAday. The seat of the Association is located in Paris.

EBA CLEARING

EBA CLEARING was established in June 1998 by 52 European and international banks. The original objective of the EBA CLEARING was operating the private large-value payment system EURO 1, the EBA had passed to the EBA Clearing. Meanwhile, her range of tasks has also extended to the two platforms STEP1 STEP2 and. EBA Clearing thus offers services in payment traffic within Europe and especially the European Union. Meanwhile, the company has 62 shareholders banks. The acceptance of the market has meant that the EBA CLEARING, next to TARGET2, as a full clearing and settlement service provider has established itself not only for commercial payments. In March 2013 EBA CLEARING launched MyBank addition, an electronic authorization solution for online payments, which is to support the e- commerce growth in Europe.

The headquarters of the EBA CLEARING is located in Paris, with additional offices in Brussels, Frankfurt and Milan.

EURO 1

EURO 1 is a payment system for large sums of money, which is operated by EBA CLEARING. Customers are European banks. Every day an average of 250,000 payments processed EURO 1 with a total value of around 210 billion euros. The system is now one of 62 stations and 48 sub- participants, mostly European banks. It is subject to German law ( Kontokorrent-Prinzip/Single Obligation Structure).

STEP1

For retail transactions EBA CLEARING has since 2000 STEP1 with a payment system in euro, which handles nearly 20,000 transactions daily. STEP1 is a single payment service for commercial transactions. STEP1 comprises 79 participants and 24 sub - participants; there are mostly small or medium-sized European banks. The technical infrastructure of STEP1 is the same as that of EURO 1 system: both use the news and IT infrastructure by SWIFT.

STEP2

Administered together with SIA as a technological partner and operates EBA CLEARING the STEP2 platform since April 2003. STEP2 is a pan-European Automated Clearing House (PE- ACH) for bulk payments in euro. The platform is next to EURO 1 and STEP1 the third pillar of EBA CLEARING for the European payments and meets the European Payments Council (EPC ) adopted principles for a PE -ACH.

Since the launch of the Single Euro Payments Area ( SEPA) on 28 January 2008, STEP2 European banks also STEP2 SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT ) service, which presents a unified infrastructure for the settlement of SEPA credit transfers. Since the introduction of the SEPA direct debit scheme on 2 November 2009 EBA CLEARING also offers the settlement of SEPA direct debits (SEPA Direct Debits ) on the STEP2 SEPA Direct Debit ( SDD) services. Is a prerequisite for the settlement of the STEP2 SCT and SDD services that payments have internationally standardized account number of the recipient ( IBAN) and the Bank internationally standardized code ( Bank Identifier Code BIC ) of the receiving bank.

With the SCT and SDD offers offers STEP2 banks across Europe a single channel with which they send both SEPA credit transfers and SEPA direct debits and receive. Today, the PE -ACH platform of EBA CLEARING reached nearly 100 percent of all banks that have signed the SCT and SDD Scheme Adherence Agreements of the European Payments Council (EPC), and allows banks to their customers SEPA-compliant services in all 33 SEPA provide countries.

MyBank

MyBank is an electronic authorization solution for online payments. MyBank allows customers to pay for their online purchases across Europe about their familiar online banking environment. At this point, the solution can be used for authorization of SEPA credit transfers; From 2014 the creation of e- SDD mandates is supported.

The EBA and the German banks

The German banks take when using the three EBA Clearing Services, a EURO1, STEP1 and STEP2 top positions. The contacts with banks in German-speaking countries were strengthened by the opening of the Frankfurt office of EBA CLEARING in 2005 even further.

External links and sources

• Official website of the EBA
• Official website of the EBA Clearing
• MyBank
• Speaking at the opening of the Frankfurt office of the EBA Clearing ( PDF file, 50 kB)
• Website with current information on EBAday

• Bankers Association
• European Organization
• Pan-European interest group