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11TH EACHA PAYMENTS FORUM, 22 MAY 2024, SOFIA

EACHA's 11th annual Payments Forum took place on 22 May 2024 in Sofia, Bulgaria. EACHA members and their guests heard outstanding presentations by speakers from Microsoft, EPI, Bizum, Swift, Mastercard and others. Topics included the impact of AI technology on payments, interoperability of instant payments in Europe, collaborative initiatives to combat fraud, the European Payments Initiative, and a Corporate Treasurer's view of the evolving payments landscape. In addition, a summary of EACHA's new whitepaper, "The ESG impact of payment instruments" was presented.

10TH EACHA PAYMENTS FORUM, 9 and 10 MAY 2023, BUDAPEST

The annual EACHA Payments Forum was held on 9 and 10 May 2023 in Budapest. There was a record attendance with over 175 invited participants from almost 30 countries. On 10 May, the Forum was opened by the President, José Luis Langa, and was then moderated by the Secretary General, Steven Brown (both are pictured below). The Forum was preceded the previous evening by a networking cruise on the Danube and dinner for all attendees. The presentations by leaders in the payments industry included topics of current relevance such as the new instant payments regulation, digital euro, project Nexus, Swift Instant and Neobanks´ payments solutions. The presentation by Privatbank from Ukraine entitled Emergency cloud migration, received special praise from those present who gave the speakers a standing ovation (see photograph below). Attendees from central banks, commercial banks and ACHs have given tremendously positive feedback about the event and we are already looking forward to next year´s Forum which will be in Sofia.

9TH EACHA PAYMENTS FORUM, 10 and 11 MAY 2022, MADRID

The first physical gathering of the EACHA community since the covid pandemic took place in Madrid and was a great pleasure for all who could attend.
The event started on the evening of 10th May with a private visit to the Prado Museum, followed by a dinner for EACHA members and their guests.
On 11th May, the Forum was attended by 160+ people form the clearing and settlement industry, with broad presence of banks, central banks, the European Commission, ECB, and the ACH-community from all over Europe. The topics of the day were Instant Payments, Fraud prevention, Security, and CBDC, notably the Digital Euro investigated by the ECB.
EACHA published a new whitepaper on CBDC in Europe.
All in all, EACHA had a successful re-union after a prolonged forced break, welcomed and cherished by all the members!

EACHA PLENARY MEETINGS 2020-2021

During the covid pandemic, all meetings were held online.
Meetings took place in June 2020 and October 2020, in May, September and October 2021.
The main highlights in summary:

- Membership fees were waived for one calendaryear in view of the pandemic (2021)
- New Statutes were adopted (Sept 2021) to comply with Belgian corporate law
- The Board of Directors was re-elected in May 2021 for a 2-year term, until May 2023

PLENARY MEETING, 29 OCTOBER 2019, ZAGREB

FINA hosted the Autumn Plenary meeting. The meeting reviewed a.o. the uptake and recent launches of Instant Payments. The ECB presented updates on developments and the EPC shared views on the Rulebook Change management cycle. The meeting further looked ahead to developments around potential new Rulebooks for Request-to-Pay in 2020. A new Board member was appointed, Mr Jonczyk from KIR, who succeeded Mr Szymanski.

PLENARY MEETING, 22 MAY, COPENHAGEN

NETS hosted the Plenary meeting which a.o. approved the Annual Accounts for 2018, and discussed the developments on Instant Payments, PSD2 and RTP. Deutsche Bundesbank and Oesterreichische National Bank shared interesting insights gained in a recent pilot project, where DLT was applied to the exchange of payment system routing tables. The Board of EACHA was re-elected and appointed for another 2-year term, with President J. Beltrán and vice-president J.L. Langa.

8TH EACHA PAYMENTS FORUM, 21 MAY 2019, COPENHAGEN

The forum was held at Axelborg Hall, Copenhagen, saw an audience gathered of 140 representatives from members and their guests from 30 countries, mostly from Europe, but for the first time, also guests from Africa and Asia attended.

The program covered the instrumental role of CSMs in a changing financial landscape, and looked in detail at Instant Payments development, convergence with Cards, EU legislation PSD2 and beyond, and the Nordic P27 initiative. In the afternoon, focus changed to look at Ambient Acquiring, Identification/Authentication innovations and the changing payment patterns with Sweden being a test case for digital central bank money. After the conference, the audience enjoyed further networking, and a stroll through the Tivoli gardens.

PLENARY MEETING, 13 NOVEMBER 2018, ATHENS

DIAS hosted the Autumn Plenary meeting in Athens.

At the meeting, the members shared developments on common interest topics such as projects, Instant Payments, PSD2 and related. EPC and ECB attended the meeting and presented on recent developments, related to ERPB, TIPS and Scheme Maintenance. The meeting approved the 2019 Budget and the Board announced start of work on a new EACHA paper with focus on fintech/CSM relationship.

PLENARY MEETING, 18 MAY 2018, LJUBLJANA

The spring Plenary meeting was hosted by Bankart. The delegates enjoyed a dinner in Slovenian style, in a beautiful setting overlooking the town.

At the Plenary meeting, the members exchanged views and updated each other on projects, Instant Payments, PSD2 and related topics. EPC and ECB both attended the meeting and presented on recent developments, related to ERPB, TIPS and Scheme Maintenance. The meeting also appointed Iberpay as Vice President of EACHA.

SEVENTH EACHA PAYMENTS FORUM, 17 MAY 2018, LJUBLJANA

For the annual EACHA Payments Forum, some 115 representatives from EACHA members and their guests from 27 countries gathered at the Intercontinental Hotel in Ljubljana. The program featured as a major theme Instant Payments, with presentations on the innovative approach taken in Slovenia, a view on the value of Instant Payments for Europe by the chairman of the EPC, and the presentation of the results of a new research report on the state of Instant Payments in Europe. The report by an independent advisory firm highlighted the diversity of implementations and solutions and the need for interoperable clearing and settlement across Europe. The next major theme was PSD2 implementation and speakers highlighted the expected large impacts on the industry, the efforts to create standardized APIs and a perspective from e-commerce merchants. GDPR/PSD2 interplay, blockchain for crossborder payments, and Identity management completed the program.

PLENARY MEETING, 31 OCTOBER 2017, ZÜRICH

SIX Group hosted the Autumn Plenary meeting. The meeting a.o. endorsed the EACHA Instant Payments Interoperability Framework, developed in alignment with the new EPC SCTInst Rulebook. The ECB attended the meeting as observer and also presented on the planned developments for the TIPS service of ECB.

PLENARY MEETING, 12 MAY 2017, AMSTERDAM

The spring Plenary meeting was hosted by equensWorldline, who took the opportunity to inform the membership about the recently concluded merger of equens and Wordline. The group enjoyed a dinner in historical setting in Amsterdam. The EPC and ECB both attended the meeting and presented on recent developments. The Board of Directors of EACHA was appointed for a new term of two years, consisting of STET, equensWorldline, Iberpay, KIR and, as new Board member, Nets. STET was re-elected to serve as President of EACHA.

SIXTH EACHA PAYMENTS FORUM, 11 MAY 2017, AMSTERDAM

The EACHA Payments Forum saw 150 representatives from EACHA members and their guests from 29 countries attended the Forum. Topics included the launch of Instant Payments in Belgium, the experience from Denmark, the TIPS project at the ECB, the RTS expected from the European Banking Authority and Cybercrime. The Dutch Payment Association shared experience in the development of non-cash payments in line with consumer habits.

PLENARY MEETING, OCTOBER 2016, LISBON

The Autumn Plenary meeting 2016 took place in Lisbon, hosted by SIBS. The ECB and EPC attended the meeting as observers and also presented on recent developments at the EPC, and on the investigation at ECB on TIPS.

FIFTH EACHA PAYMENTS FORUM, STOCKHOLM 17 MAY 2016

The Eacha Payments Forum has in recent years become a preferred networking event for the retail payments clearing industry community in Europe. 135 representatives from EACHA members and their guests from 28 countries attended the Forum in Stockholm.

Click here for an impression about the event and the programme.

PLENARY MEETING 18 MAY, STOCKHOLM

The spring Plenary meeting took place in Stockholm, hosted by Bankgirot. EACHA welcomed the Slovenian ACH, Bankart, as a new member. The Director General of the EPC attended the meeting as observer and also presented on recent developments at the EPC.

EACHA INSTANT PAYMENTS INTEROPERABILITY FRAMEWORK

Already in 2013/2014, the EACHA Innovation Group identified Instant Payments as an important growth area for Europe and started to study the potential impacts on clearing. In 2015 and 2016 publications were issued outlining the issues and potential solutions for interoperability of Instant Payments, in a landscape of multiple providers of Instant Payments services, to ensure Pan-european reach. Since December 2015, EACHA actively participates to various working groups of the EPC, which are developing an “SCT-Inst” Rulebook. It also takes part in ad hoc task forces of the ECB. It aims to deliver an EACHA Instant Payments Interoperability Framework (EIPIF) in November 2016, aligned with the publication of the EPC’s “SCT-Inst” Rulebook.

CONTINUOUSLY WORKING ON INTEROPERABILITY IN SEPA

Interoperability is the ability to be consistently accessible to other payment service providers and processors. It goes without saying that interoperability is a key component for SEPA. EACHA aims to complement the SEPA standards developed by the European Payments Council (EPC) by establishing an interoperability framework. By standardising the technical and operating model for the interoperability of CSMs (Clearing and Settlement Mechanisms), EACHA aims to facilitate reach between infrastructures carrying out payment processing, clearing and settlement.
  
Since January 2006, the EACHA task force on interoperability has been working on these issues. This has resulted in the EACHA interoperability framework. Additional information is available under ‘Publications’.

The EACHA interoperability Framework is now in operation and is being used by a number of ACHs to exchange SEPA payments. For details of ACHS involved, see EACHA interoperability in operation
  
ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN BANKING FORUMS
  
By actively participating in banking forums, EACHA has supported the self-regulatory efforts of the banking sector to create SEPA. EACHA stresses the importance of cooperation with all relevant parties, such as the European Central Bank (ECB) and the EPC. EACHA participates in the stakeholder forum of the EPC (the ESTF, together with clearing providers and technology providers).