Bank of Lithuania provides SEPA connectivity to local banks via EBA Clearing`s STEP2 platform

The direct connection of the Bank of Lithuania to the STEP2 SEPA Services follows the completion of functional and volume tests organised by EBA CLEARING with the Lithuanian banking community and enables local banks to be fully reachable by payment service providers across the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) for both euro retail credit transfers and direct debits.

The access to STEP2 supports the Lithuanian banking community and its customers in completing their migration to the SEPA instruments by 1 January, 2016. This deadline stems from the regulatory requirement that new Eurozone countries have to adopt the SEPA Schemes and phase out their local payment instruments within one year following their adherence to the European Monetary Union (EMU). Lithuania joined the Eurozone on 1st January 2015.

STEP2 is the platform of choice for pan-European SEPA transactions and also serves as a payment system for domestic SEPA payments for the banking communities in Estonia, Finland, Luxembourg and Ireland as well as for numerous major banks in other countries, e.g. Germany and Italy.