Transatlantic collaboration launches new international payments service

In 2009, the Federal Reserve Banks and Equens announced a strategic collaboration for the processing of cross-border payments, later extending this collaboration to include DZ BANK.  The effort enables financial institutions in the United States to send payments in U.S. dollars, Euros and British pounds to 22 countries across Europe via FedGlobal® ACH Payments. Conversely, banks across Europe can send U.S. dollar payments via Equens to the United States. DZ BANK serves as the European gateway operator, with Equens acting as the payment processor.

This new channel for cross-border payments is the first live implementation of the payments framework of the International Payments Framework Association (IPFA), a collaborative effort among public and private payment groups in Africa, Europe, North America and South America to standardize and make more efficient the transfer of low-value payments around the world.

According to Michael Steinbach, chairman of Equens' Board of Directors, "This service fulfils an increasing demand within Europe for the efficient processing of low-value cross-border payments around the world. It is our ambition to extend this service to include other regions, countries and currencies."