The International Payments Framework (IPF), an initiative of 30
organisations in 16 countries aimed at creating interoperability
between domestic and international automated clearing house (ACH)
systems, has sounded a positive note following completion of
12-month feasibility study.
The IPF has now called for additional financial institutions,
ACH operators, central banks and other payments industry
participants to join its existing members in a project that would
take ACH interoperability from its concept phase into an
implementation phase.
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The IPF concept aims to establish a membership organisation that
will provide rules, standards, operating procedures and guidelines
to improve non-urgent cross-border payments through a member
service agreement binding members to the operating rules. The rules
would enable interoperability between existing domestic or regional
ACH payment systems, the ability to exchange transactions in
multiple currencies and settlement procedures based on existing
practices.
According to the feasibility study, the IPF would, among many
benefits, eliminate the complexities in international non-urgent
payments, simplify back-office processing for both receiving and
sending financial institutions and reduce operating costs by
improving straight-through processing. The working group
responsible for the feasibility study noted that no regulatory
barriers to proceeding with the IPF’s development had been
identified.
Decision pending
A final decision on whether to proceed with the implementation of
the concept will be made on 31 March 2008. If approved, transaction
processing between member organisations is scheduled for the fourth
quarter of 2009. The minimum required for implementation to proceed
is 25 large global banks and clearing and settlement organisations
in geographically diverse major markets.
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By GlobalDataThe IPF initiative is co-ordinated by the US Electronic Payments
Association’s Global Payments Forum.
