site.btaBulgarian National Bank Joins STEP2 Pan-European Payment System as Direct Participant

The Governing Council of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) has decided to change the licence of BORICA AD as the operator of the payment system for servicing customer transfers in euro BISERA (formerly called BISERA7-EUR) and to include BNB as a direct participant in the pan-European payment system STEP2 operated by EBA Clearing, the BNB said on Friday.

The main change in the operation of the BISERA payment system is related to the switch to a pre-funded settlement model starting June 3, 2024, which will speed up the processing of customer payments in euro between system participants and reduce system risk. The renewal of the BISERA payment system is another stage of Bulgaria's preparation for euro area membership, ensuring the compliance of the national payment system with the current trends in processing customer payments, preserving its competitiveness after euro adoption, the Central Bank said.

Full SEPA reachability of the BISERA payment system is envisaged starting July 9, 2024, through the direct participation of BNB in the STEP2 payment system. This enables banks and non-bank payment service providers in BISERA to be reachable parties in STEP2 via the BNB and to order and receive SEPA customer transfers in euro to all 36 countries in the Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA). This will increase the efficiency of the payment process when processing customer payments in euro and is a prerequisite for reducing the costs of payment service providers, the National Bank also noted.

The next step in the implementation of the activities in the field of payment systems under the National Euro Changeover Plan of the Republic of Bulgaria is to ensure by the end of 2024 the possibility to execute instant credit transfers in euro by connecting payment service providers in the country and the BISERA payment system to the Eurosystem's TIPS (Target Instant Payment Settlement) service, the announcement said.