2016-01-07
Not only banks but other financial institutions as well may execute real-time payments in Bank of Lithuania system
In addition to a part of domestic banks, some credit unions and payment and electronic money institutions have also decided to take advantage of the new possibilities offered by the next-generation retail payment system, introduced by the Bank of Lithuania.
‘Financial institutions that have chosen the Bank of Lithuania’s modern retail payment system can already offer to their customers real-time payment services between system participants on all business days, 10 hours per day. The new system also became accessible for credit unions. Payment and electronic money institutions, which, due to various reasons, until now could only execute payments through banks, will be reachable via the system as well’, said Marius Jurgilas, Member of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania.
AB Šiaulių bankas, AB Citadele bankas, UAB Medicinos bankas, the Central Securities Depository of Lithuania, the Central Credit Union of Lithuania, uniting 61 credit unions, as well as five independent credit unions (AMBER, Sostinės kreditas, Šiauliai credit union, Vilniaus kreditas and Vilnius Region Credit Union) have already joined the Bank of Lithuania’s retail payment system SEPA-MMS, which launched back in December and is in line with the requirements of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). UAB Perlo paslaugos has already prepared to make use of the possibilities of the new system; other payment and electronic money institutions are preparing for this as well.
These system participants can constantly execute payments among themselves and credit funds to customers in real time, on working days, between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. In the previous system, nine clearings were performed per day — on an hourly basis, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Not all customers of banks in Lithuania will enjoy the benefits offered by SEPA-MMS, as some banks have chosen not to participate in the Bank of Lithuania’s system. Their customers’ payments to other financial institutions are executed via another payment system operating abroad, where clearings are performed five times per day — at 8:30 a.m., 10:45 a.m., 1:15 p.m., 3:45 p.m. and 5:20 p.m.
The Bank of Lithuania is determined and obligated to further improve SEPA-MMS, taking into account the need of payment service providers and their customers to increase real-time payment possibilities and thus bring even more benefits to the participants using the system.
‘Our goal is to make sure that financial institutions connected to the system and their customers would be one of the first in the euro area to get the opportunity to execute payments in line with the instant payments scheme which, at the moment, is still only being created in Europe. In the future, these payments will be executed in a few seconds, 24/7’, said M. Jurgilas.