The Bank of Greece adopts instant payments as beneficiary bank of the Government
16/02/2023 - Press Releases
- As from today, the public can make domestic and cross-border instant payments to the Government.
- The Bank of Greece is the first Central Bank of the Eurosystem to participate in TIPS as beneficiary bank in cross-border and domestic payments to the Government
As from 16 February 2023, the Bank of Greece, acting as fiscal agent of the Government, provides the public with the possibility of conducting both domestic and cross-border instant payments in favour of government entities. The state-of-the-art Eurosystem infrastructure “ΤΑRGET Instant Payment Settlement” (TIPS) is used to process the above-mentioned transactions under the requirements of the “SEPA Credit Transfer Instant” (SCTInst) scheme created by the European Payments Council (EPC).
The new service offers:
- real-time final settlement of transactions (in less than 10 seconds);
- instant notification of both the payer and payee and return of funds in case of payment rejection;
- 24/7/365 availability (including outside banking hours); and
- instant availability of funds to the beneficiary.
Contributing to the uptake of instant payments and enhancing digital innovation and efficiency in the field of retail payments, the Bank of Greece moves along towards the implementation of the European Retail Payment strategy as defined by both the Eurosystem and the European Commission.
Main benefits:
- simplification and time minimisation of domestic and cross-border transactions with public sector entities;
- improvement of resources allocation and easing of the administrative burden for all stakeholders (consumers, businesses, the Public Administration, PSPs, payment systems);
- promotion of the use of innovative means of payment in everyday transactions;
- provision of an environmentally friendly payment method (TIPS has a carbon footprint of 0,0004g CO2 per transaction); and
- ability to combine instant payments with other added value services (e.g. Request-to-Pay).
As a result of this initiative, the Bank of Greece is the first Central Bank of the Eurosystem to participate in TIPS as beneficiary bank in cross-border and domestic payments to the Government, thus fostering further adoption of innovative payments by the financial sector.