TIPS goes live!

30 November 2018

Today marked the launch of TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS), an innovative pan-European service that immediately settles electronic payments in central bank money. Funds are transferred within seconds, at any time of day and on any day of the year.

With instant payments gaining momentum around the world, the European Central Bank helps to cover this demand in the euro area by offering TIPS to banks and other payment service providers. The price per instant payment transaction is set at €0.002 for the first two years of operation, with no charges for the first ten million payments settled by each TIPS participant up until the end of 2019. A number of banks have already connected to TIPS: Banco de Crédito Social Cooperativo, Abanca Corporación Bancaria, CaixaBank, Caja Laboral Popular Cooperativa de Crédito and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria in Spain, Natixis in France, and TeamBank and Berlin Hyp in Germany.

TIPS went live in a ceremony hosted by the Banca d’Italia in Rome, featuring keynote speeches by Ignazio Visco, Governor of the Banca d’Italia, and Yves Mersch, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank.