VocaLink, an international payments provider, and Clear2Pay, which provides next-generation payment solutions, teamed up to bring the industry one step closer to achieving global immediate payments.

The partnership enables banks to provide their customers with an end-to-end, interbank, real-time payments service, with the inclusion of multichannel service options such as mobile.

In a separate but related move, VocaLink signed a global partnership with Fundtech, to help banks cater for low-value payments.

Since VocaLink launched the United Kingdom's Faster Payments Service in May 2008, the company has securely processed more than 1 billion transactions, both online and through traditional interbank transfers.

Building on the success of the real-time payments infrastructure, VocaLink and Clear2Pay are now partnering to provide an end-to-end solution that supports real-time payment processing from the central switch thorough to a bank's back office. The combined capabilities deliver a national, real time payments capability and a proven solution that enables banks to make an efficient and effective transition from their existing payments capability to a real-time, immediate service.

The new offering means financial institutions can integrate their systems with the Immediate Payments solution and, for the first time, realize and pass on the benefits of Immediate Payments to their corporate and consumer customers. This will facilitate the global adoption of new payment channels, such as P2P payments via the mobile.

Marc Terry, managing director, Global Transaction Services at VocaLink, says "The drive towards immediacy in payments is becoming increasingly important as consumers want to make payments from anywhere, at anytime."

Mark Hartley, chief marketing officer at Clear2Pay says: "Central banks and governments around the world see benefits in Immediate Payment schemes in the sense of reduced settlement risk, a richer consumer proposition, and equally important, a higher velocity of money within the economy. As such the market urgently calls for new and secure schemes without having to reinvent the wheel."

http://www.vocalink.com/press-room/press-releases-2011/vocalink-and-clear2pay-team-up-to-facilitate-the-move-to-global-immediate-payments-.aspx