Payments
accepted
ELLIPS
only processes credit transfers in euro, interbank (MT202) as well
as customer payments (MT103).
ELLIPS
processes both domestic and cross-border payments. The cross-border
payments are destined for banks in an EU country participating in
TARGET, even if this country does not participate in the European
Monetary Union.
Payment
module
The
payments sent are immediately checked for validation by ELLIPS. When
a payment is rejected, a SWIFT message is sent to the initiator.
The
accepted messages are written into a file and chronologically
treated by the system according the FIFO principle (first in, first
out).
If
no waiting queue is live for the sender, ELLIPS treats the
transaction as follows:
-
the necessary information to settle
the transaction is extracted from the payment instruction and is
sent to the NBB current accounts application.
-
if the sender has sufficient funds
at his disposal, the payment is settled (sender debited, beneficiary
credited) and becomes immediately final; ELLIPS is informed and
instantly sends the detailed message to the beneficiary. If the
available funds are insufficient, the current accounts application
informs ELLIPS of this event and ELLIPS puts the payment instruction
in the waiting queue.
The
validation and possible waiting queue treatment of cross-border
payments does not differ from the one for domestic payments. The
difference lies in the settlement of the transactions. Only the
initiating participant holds an account with the NBB. The
beneficiary participant on the contrary keeps his account with
another NCB (see supra).
In
order to enable a cross-border payment in ELLIPS to take place, a
technical participant NBB/IL has been created.
The
processing of a cross-border payment can be summarised as follows:
1.
a Belgian bank A sends a payment instruction to
ELLIPS destined for bank B in a country participating in TARGET;
2.
ELLIPS validates the message;
3.
if bank A has sufficient funds at its disposal,
ELLIPS debits bank A and credits NBB/IL;
4.
the interlinking component debits NBB/IL and credits
the beneficiary NCB;
5.
afterwards the interlinking component sends a PSMR
(Payment System Message Request) to the NCB of the destination
country;
6.
this latter answers with a PSMN (Payment System
Message Notification). If it concerns a positive PSMN, then the
payment is final. This means that the beneficiary was credited in
the books of the addressed NCB. If a negative PSMN is sent, bank A
is refunded in ELLIPS.
LIQUIDITY
MANAGEMENT IN ELLIPS
Management
of the priorities
The
ELLIPS participants can attribute a priority code from 1 to maximum
9 to their payments. The codes 1 to 6 are intended for payments
which do not concern reservings of funds. For payments which do
concern reservings of funds codes 7 to 9 must be used.
The
intelligent by-pass FIFO waiting queue mechanism
The
intelligent FIFO by-pass-mechanism for waiting queues (WQ), as
described below, manages the smooth flow of the payments.
Should a waiting queue already exist for the sender, the amount of
the new accepted payment is compared to the amounts of the messages
in the waiting queue and with the same priority. If the amount turns
out to be smaller than all other payments in the waiting queue, and
if no payment with a higher priority appears in the waiting queue,
the payment will be processed as if no waiting queue existed.
Otherwise the new payment is put in the waiting queue. Some payments
may be given preferential treatment. For these payment messages a
higher priority code is entered. The increase of the sender's
available funds triggers off the processing of the payment messages
in the waiting queue. Payment messages with a higher priority code
are always treated first; messages with a similar priority are
treated according the FIFO principle.
The
reservings of funds
Thanks
to the mechanism for the reserving of funds, the ELLIPS-participant
can freeze one or more amounts on his current account, with a view
to ensuring the execution of one or more operations. These
reservings can be executed in the Current Accounts application of
the NBB.
Cancellation
of a payment
An
ELLIPS-participant can cancel a payment in the waiting queue by
sending a request for cancellation to ELLIPS. On the basis of this
request, and provided that the beneficiary participant agrees, the
ELLIPS/TARGET-operators will cancel the payment manually in ELLIPS.
Collective
unblocking
This
procedure will automatically be initiated 5 minutes after the
closure of the customer transfers (normally at 5 p.m.) and the
interbank payments (normally at 6 p.m.). The collective unblocking
procedure ends the processing of those payments which may still be
in the waiting queue at that moment. For this purpose a balance is
simulated for each participant, assuming that all orders were
executed simultaneously. If none of the participants shows a
negative balance, each payment is executed separately.
Alternatively, the ELLIPS/TARGET person in charge will notify those
participants whose balance is insufficient and ask them to make the
necessary arrangements to unblock the situation.
This procedure can also be initiated manually in the event of
grid-lock (mutually blocking waiting queues of payments).
Intraday
credit
The
NBB grants its counterparts a free intraday credit aimed at
financing, during the day, the debit positions in euro on the
settlement account opened in the name of the beneficiary
institutions. In principle, intraday credit is taken up in the form
of advances in the current accounts, guaranteed by collateral. The
maximum amount of intraday credit a beneficiary institution can take
up is limited to the amount of adequate collateral pledged by the
institution.
The NBB has a legal privilege on all eligible assets held as proper
assets by its counterparts on a securities account opened with the
NBB or in its securities clearing system.
The
treasury module
This
module offers the ELLIPS participants the opportunity to retrieve
information on what happened in the payment systems during the
course of the day. The participant can systematically obtain
information on:
-
possibilities of credit with the
NBB;
-
situation of his current account
with the NBB;
-
transactions on his current account
with the NBB and more specific the ELLIPS payments;
-
operations coming from and destined
for other RTGS systems participating in TARGET;
-
situation of the peripheral
systems;
-
waiting queue with transactions to
be carried out;
-
waiting queue with the transactions
addressed to him.
The
end of day procedure
After
5 p.m. ELLIPS no longer accepts customer payments (MT103),
with the exception of cross-border payments coming from TARGET. At
5.05 p.m. ELLIPS tries to process the payments that are still in the
waiting queue. In this case ELLIPS carries out a collective
deblocking procedure. The
system manager initiates this collective deblocking.
After 6 p.m. ELLIPS no longer accepts interbank payments (MT202)
with the exception of cross-border payments coming from TARGET.
Likewise, at 6.05 p.m. a collective deblocking procedure is
initiated here.
If the deblocking procedure of both types of messages cannot result
in the execution of all payments still remaining in the waiting
queue at that moment, all cross-border payments are deleted from the
waiting queue.
Payments related to monetary policy may be presented until 6.30 p.m.
All payments still in the waiting queue at the closure of ELLIPS
will be deleted at the time. Under normal conditions, ELLIPS is
closed at 6.30 p.m.
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