We administer Settlement Before Interchange (SBI) which is the SWIFT-based payment settlement and interchange system used by our BECS and CECS Participants (primarily banks).
SBI enables Participants of these clearing systems to settle payments and, once this has occurred, exchange the payment information with other Participants every day on a bilateral basis.
Settlement occurs multiple times every day and each settlement is closely followed by the exchange of the payment information (interchange) between Participants - Settlement Before Interchange.
For example, if you need to pay a business whose account is at another bank, you might set up a bill payment through your internet banking. Your bank will then take your payment request, along with those it has received from other customers, and create the payment instruction to send to the other bank. When this is sent, your bank pays the money to the other bank (called ‘settlement’) and once this payment between the two banks has occurred, the payment instructions are received and processed by the recipient's bank (called ‘interchange').
SBI365 project
The industry transition to 365-day payments is now complete. To find out more, see our article and the accompanying Q&As.