Sweden completes first phase of migration to TIPS

23 May 2022

Sveriges Riksbank has successfully completed the first phase of the migration to TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS). This paves the way for the instant settlement of payments in Swedish kronor in TIPS.

The first phase included establishing a connection between the Swedish real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system RIX and the Eurosystem’s TIPS. The connection is a prerequisite for funding and defunding the accounts of future Swedish participants in TIPS. In the second phase, the Swedish market will test the TIPS platform in order to prepare for final migration in the course of the first quarter of 2023.

TIPS currently only settles payments in euro. However it was designed and developed to allow settlement in central bank money in several currencies. Sveriges Riksbank is the first non-euro area central bank to join the TIPS platform with its currency, leveraging on this feature. The central banks of Norway and Denmark have also expressed an interest in joining TIPS with their respective national currencies in order to offer instant payment settlement in central bank money to their respective communities.

For more information, see Sveriges Riksbank’s news article.

TIPS is a pan-European service for settling electronic payments instantly. It is offered by the Eurosystem to banks and payment service providers and operates on a 24/7/365 basis. The service uses central bank money to facilitate transfers between individuals and businesses within seconds, irrespective of the opening hours of their local bank.