Contents

• Systemically important payment systems: ECB Regulation and Decisions

Systemically important payment systems: ECB Regulation and Decisions

European Central Bank (ECB) Regulation (EU) 2021/728, which amends the Regulation on oversight requirements for systemically important payment systems (SIPS) (the SIPS Regulation), has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, together with two related ECB Decisions, (EU) 2021/729 and (EU) 2021/730.

The Amending Regulation will revise the SIPS Regulation to:

• allow for both the ECB and a national central bank to be designated as competent authorities in exceptional circumstances where a pan-European payment system has been overseen by the national central bank for five years or more before becoming a SIPS;
• introduce an additional methodology that allows the ECB Governing Council to identify certain payment systems as SIPSs that fall outside the criteria currently set out in the SIPS Regulation;
• require the ECB to follow process procedures concerning the identification of SIPSs, which include issuing a written notice when initiating the identification process and stating the reasons for its decision to identify a payment system as a SIPS; and
• clarify the circumstances in which the ECB will consider that a payment system should no longer be identified as a SIPS.

ECB Decision (EU) 2021/729 and ECB Decision (EU) 2021/730 make consequential amendments to, respectively, ECB Decision (EU) 2017/2098 on procedural aspects concerning the imposition of corrective measures for non-compliance with the SIPS Regulation, and ECB Decision (EU) 2019/1349 on the procedure and conditions for exercise by a competent authority of certain powers in relation to oversight of SIPS.

The ECB has updated its webpage on its preceding consultation to provide clarifications on certain issues that arose in feedback to the consultation.