The RT1 System is a real-time gross settlement payment system for the execution of SEPA Instant Credit Transfers (SCT Inst) at a pan-European level. The payment system operates around the clock on every day of the year.

RT1 supports payment service providers in transferring euro transactions between payment accounts in a few seconds end to end, with immediate availability of the payment amount to the beneficiary. Transactions between RT1 participants are processed on average in just over one second.

Financial institutions from all over Europe can use RT1 for any payment in euro that is fully compliant with the SCT Inst Scheme of the European Payments Council (EPC) and is in line with the ISO 20022 global messaging standards for real-time payments.

RT1 offers full reach to all PSPs that adhere to the SCT Inst Scheme. The system currently has 80 participants across Europe, extending reach to all SCT Inst-Scheme adhering PSPs in SEPA. At present, the scheme-adhering institutions represent around 80% of the SEPA Credit Transfer traffic in STEP2.

On weekdays, the service currently handles around 2 million transactions per day on average.

• Designed to build and support pan-European reach
• Open to any SCT Inst Scheme-adhering PSP 
• Robust and resilient infrastructure
• 24/7 non-stop service
• Real-time gross settlement in immediately available central bank funds
• Future-proof in terms of scalability and flexibility
• Compliant with the EPC SCT Inst Scheme
• Use case-agnostic design
• Inter-PSP processing within 1.5 seconds or less
• Full settlement certainty, no credit risk
• Efficient tools to allow automation of liquidity management and 24/7 access
• Interoperable with other SCT Inst-compliant CSMs
• Single interface for transactions settling in RT1 and TIPS
• Connection for settlement in TIPS available through dedicated cash account in TIPS or across RT1 and TIPS via the AS technical account