ECB and SNB explore link between instant payments systems

29 September 2025

The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) has approved the initiation of an exploratory phase to evaluate the potential establishment of a bilateral link between the Eurosystem’s TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) service and the Swiss Interbank Clearing Instant Payments (SIC IP) system. The exploration phase, which will involve assessing the technical, legal and economic feasibility of the project, will be conducted in collaboration with the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and will run throughout 2026.

The work is part of an ECB initiative to improve cross-border payments within the EU and beyond. In addition to the cross-currency settlement service to be implemented in TIPS, the ECB is exploring links with other fast payment systems around the world. The decision supports the G20 roadmap for creating a faster, cheaper, more transparent and accessible global payments ecosystem, while ensuring secure and reliable instant payments. Linking fast payment systems across borders would improve their interoperability, reducing the costs and increasing the speed and transparency of cross-border payments, including remittances.