iSignthis Ltd (ASX:ISX) (FRA:TA8) is pleased to announce that it is the first Central Bank of Cyprus authorised institution to enable SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) Instant payments processing for its customers, via its ISXPay(R) payments network. Business and retail customers can now benefit from instant p2b, p2p, b2b and b2p payments, between any points within the European Economic Area (EEA).

Customers are able to instantly transfer up to EUR15,000, which will arrive in a beneficiary's account within a maximum of 10 seconds.

The launch of SEPA instant will allow the Company to boost revenues associated with our EMA product, and provide an alternative to the SWIFT service. SEPA instant is a more efficient and obviously faster means to transfer EUROS (€), which we anticipate will allow us to grow our transactional base much faster than the use of SWIFT. The majority of our SWIFT traffic was for EUROS (€), and the 2-3 days clearing meant that customers would more likely wait to ‘batch’ payments. Whenever customers are faced with a delay or friction on the internet, inevitably, customers either find another way, or, the opportunity may be lost altogether. We have opted to provide our customers with an instant solution instead.

Our EMA agreements allow us to charge inbound fees as a percentage of the transaction, with a flat fee for outbound - be that the inbound or outbound transactions, via SEPA Core, SEPA Instant or SWIFT.

Where SEPA instant will make a difference is in retail transactions, and the speed in which those transactions can now inflow to our business customer’s EMAs. We have prioritised that business case over that of SWIFT, as we believe that this is the ‘gold’ standard.

Of course, SEPA Instant ties into our flykk ecosystem, and our ability to allow brokers and merchants to be paid instantly. In due course, this will provide a further capability for our ClearPay JV and the NSXA.

ISX is still connected to SWIFT, and are a Swift Alliance member. We can receive EUROS (€) inbound via our current capabilities. Our SWIFT project is intended to reconnect our outbound capability, which was deferred in lieu of completing SEPA Instant (which has instant bidirectional capability). We now anticipate that the SWIFT project will be commenced shortly, for completion mid year, provided that other business cases don’t provide a better return in the interim.

See today’s SEPA announcement for more details > https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20200305/pdf/44fsbj55kvj8v0.pdf