BNP Paribas continues to roll-out the SEPA Instant Payments plan across Europe, and has now activated SEPA Instant credit transfers in Spain for its corporate customers, including EDPR, a global leader in the renewable energy sector.
The real novelty however, lies in the initiation method: while most instant payments are currently instructed as unitary payment via an e-banking platform or via API, BNP Paribas has now enabled bulk-file transmission, meaning clients can now send a full batch of payments to be executed as instant payments. This file-based initiation is available through the local Spanish Host-to-Host channel Editran, through our global e-banking Connexis Cash, and via other Host-to-Host channels such as SWIFTNET. Funds are credited to the beneficiary in near real-time, and clients receive real-time confirmations through their Payment Status Report.
Spain is one of the European countries where the uptake of Instant Payments is the most notable: they already represent more than a third of all credit transfers. And with this new transmission method, there’s no doubt that adoption numbers will grow even further, especially amongst corporate clients. Generally speaking, the use of Instant Payments by corporates in Europe has been slower than in the retail environment. This is because bulk file transmission – which remains the most common way of instructing for corporate clients - has not yet been largely deployed for instant payments.
This bulk-file transmission mode is what convinced EDPR to adopt instant payments. As a global energy company and a leader in value creation, innovation and sustainability, they were eager to move to real-time payments , which they see as a new must-have tool for treasury departments.
This is thus a new milestone for BNP Paribas, and another major step in our objective of delivering instant frictionless payments for our clients.
