Instruction (Archive) No. 29/2023

Instruction No. 29/2023
BO No. 12/2023 Supplement • 2023/12/21
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Topics
Payment Systems :: Clearing
Mod. 99999940/T – 01/14
Index
Text of the Instruction
Text of the Instruction
Subject: Amending Instruction No. 8/2018

On June 29, 2023, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank approved a package of amendments to the pricing schedule applicable to the TARGET Instant Payments Settlement (TIPS), which introduces fixed fees applicable to Automated Clearing Houses (ACH) and revises some of the existing variable fees.

The new pricing schedule enters into force on January 1, 2024, and the amendments have been included in the new version of Guideline (EU) 2022/912 on a new generation trans-European automated real-time gross settlement system (TARGET) [ECB/2022/8], which is incorporated into Portuguese law through Instruction No. 16/2022, of October 17 – TARGET-PT Regulation.

With the aforementioned amendment to the pricing schedule applicable to TIPS, it becomes necessary to amend Instruction No. 8/2018, of March 22 – SICOI Regulation, particularly regarding the settlement of instant payments, with the aim of ensuring the recovery of costs borne by the Bank of Portugal with the settlement of these operations in TARGET.

In this sense, the fee per operation for each operation settled in the instant payments subsystem is amended, and, as a complement, a "monthly fee for the maintenance of the technical account of the instant payments subsystem" is created, which corresponds to the equal distribution, among the participants in the aforementioned subsystem, of the fixed monthly fee borne by the SICOI technical account opened in TIPS.

Likewise, the opportunity is taken to introduce an amendment to the business continuity procedures in contingency situations, provided for in the SICOI Regulation.

Thus, in the exercise of the competence attributed to it by Article 14 of its Organic Law, which confers powers to regulate, supervise and promote the proper functioning of payment systems, notably within the scope of its participation in the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), and with the aim of regulating the functioning of the Interbank Clearing System - SICOI, the Bank of Portugal determines the following:

Instruction No. 29/2023 BO No. 12/2023 Supplement • 2023/12/21 Topics Payment Systems :: Clearing
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Mod. 99999940/T – 01/14

1. In Chapter I of Instruction No. 8/2018, of March 22, point 28, letter d) shall have the following wording:
   "d) Periodically (at least annually) conduct exercises with the Bank of Portugal that allow testing (i) the settlement of clearing balances and operations settled directly in TARGET on an individual basis, in case of failure of the connection to TARGET, (ii) the recalculation of clearing balances in all subsystems, (iii) the activation of the SICOI guarantee mechanism, (iv) the suspension of participants in the instant payments subsystem, and (v) the suspension of participants in the deferred settlement subsystems."

2. In Annex IX of the Instruction, point 1 shall have the following wording:
   "1. SICOI Pricing Schedule
   1.1. The pricing schedule to be applied to SICOI participants is based on the recovery of costs borne by the Bank of Portugal with:
   a) the management of SICOI, through the monthly participation fee per subsystem or subsystem branch; b) the settlement of operations in TARGET, through the monthly fee for the maintenance of the technical account of the instant payments subsystem and the fees per operation.

1.2. The SICOI pricing schedule is applied monthly to direct participants in the system, with the payment of the monthly invoice and any adjustment relating to the previous year, referred to in point 1.3 of this Annex, being made directly by the Bank of Portugal via debit to the account defined for this purpose. Exceptionally, and if justified reasons are identified, the Bank of Portugal may agree on an alternative collection mechanism with the direct participant.

SICOI Pricing Schedule
Prices
(Euros)
Monthly participation fee per subsystem or per subsystem branch (1) per direct participation .............................................................................................. 30.00 per indirect participation .......................................................................................... 12.00

Monthly fee for the maintenance of the technical account of the instant payments subsystem (2) Fee per operation per each clearing balance settled ....................................................................................... 1.48

Instruction No. 29/2023 BO No. 12/2023 Supplement • 2023/12/21 Topics Payment Systems :: Clearing
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Mod. 99999940/T – 01/14

per each large-value operation settled ................................................................................... 1.48 per each operation settled in the instant payments subsystem ............... (3)

(1) The direct participant in a given clearing subsystem or subsystem branch is charged for its own participation and for the participation of each of the indirect participants it represents in each subsystem or subsystem branch.

(2) Monthly fee calculated according to the following formula:
3,000 euros
(number of direct and indirect participants in the instant payments subsystem at the end of each month)

(3) Fee calculated according to the following formula:
[(Number of operations * Unit price) +
(Number of operations * Unit price) +
(Number of operations * Unit price) +
(Number of operations * Unit price)]

Total number of operations

Where:

• The "No. of operations" refers to the operations settled in the instant payments subsystem by all participants;
• Each band corresponds to the following:
  Band From To Unit price
  (in euros)
  Band A 0 10,000,000 0.00040
  Band B 10,000,001 25,000,000 0.00030
  Band C 25,000,001 100,000,000 0.00020
  Band D Above 100,000,001 0.00015

1.3. To ensure the recovery referred to in point 1.1, the Bank of Portugal will proceed with the adjustment relating to the previous year as soon as it has knowledge of the amount due to the Eurosystem, which will be based on the total number of clearing balances and large-value operations settled in TARGET in that year.

1.4. The pricing schedule does not incorporate the costs of the processor entity and the costs of communications service providers."

3. The provisions contained in this Instruction shall be applicable from January 1, 2024.