Instant Payments Bridge

A standard solution for connecting payment schemes to the SIC IP service

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) and SIX Interbank Clearing Ltd (SIC Ltd) have jointly established a new infrastructure – the SIC5 platform – to further develop the Swiss Interbank Clearing (SIC) system. This will enable financial institutions to process instant payments in central bank money. In the future, the SIC IP service (Instant Payments service of the SIC system) will also be available to interested providers of payment solutions (payment schemes) for their account-to-account (A2A) payments. Together with the SNB, financial institutions and various market participants, SIC Ltd launched the "Scheme-on-Scheme" project in the fall of 2002 to discuss how standardized and non-discriminatory access to payment schemes could be regulated. This resulted in a rough concept for an "Instant Payments Bridge" (IPB), which led to a public market consultation upon completion of the project on 15 August 2024. 

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Market Consultation

The consultation on the IPB took place from 15 August to 30 September 2024. The aim was to obtain structured feedback from interested market participants on the initial ideas presented in the rough concept “Design Principles of a ‘SIC Instant Payments Bridge’ for the SIC IP Service” and to inform the financial community about the IPB.

Following the market consultation, SIX prepared a consultation report. The summarized feedback is intended to serve as decision-making basis for the responsible bodies of the Swiss financial center and to be taken into account in the further design of the IPB.

Consultation Documents

    Consultation Report "SIC Instant Payments Bridge" for the SIC IP Service

    Open document

    Rough Concept: Design Principles of a "SIC Instant Payments Bridge" for the SIC IP Service

    Open document

Instant Payments Bridge – Purpose and Function

Payment schemes should be able to process payments via the SIC-IP service. For this pur-pose, they deliver transactions to the financial institutions and thus indirectly to the SIC system. The IPB standardizes the connection of the payment schemes and thus realizes this access to the SIC-IP service. If required, it provides functionalities to simplify the indi-rect submission and/or technical components for the payment systems.

Execution of A2A money transfers in real time 24x7x365

Since August 2024, financial institutions in Switzerland have been able to offer their customers instant payments around the clock. It only takes a few seconds for a transaction to move from the payer's account to the beneficiary's account.

Future-proof infrastructure

Provision of an efficient, modern and future-oriented A2A payment infrastructure for Switzerland.

Non-discriminatory access

Non-discriminatory "level playing field" access to the basic infrastructure for payment schemes to foster innovation and use cases for A2A payments.

Additional Information on the "Scheme-on-Scheme" Project Process

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the Instant Payments Bridge, please contact us using the form below.

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