What is EBICS?
The EBICS, or Electronic Banking Internet Communication Standard is the standard for electronic data exchanges between corporations, banks, and other financial institutions. The EBICS standard was first used by Germany and France to engage in SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) exchanges between customers or clearing houses and banks. These exchanges, or transfers, occur by direct debit or credit transfers using a specific transmission protocol for centralized cross-border exchanges between European countries. Today financial institutions in Switzerland, Germany, and France are leveraging EBICS access globally, sending payment files through large internal networks to smaller processing locations all over the world.
Electronic banking internet communication is initiated when an EBICS client calls an EBICS server, where the client is either sending or fetching data. Specifically, the EBICS client or Corporates (client on the bank’s customer side) is either sending payment orders or requesting account statements from the EBICS server hosted by a financial institution. These exchanges are often referred to as “Corporate side” and “bank side.” There are generally user requirements that must be agreed upon before bank communication can be initiated using the EBICS protocol, such as type of business transactions, bank account as well as authorizations and permissions information.
The Electronic Banking Internet Communication Standard may eventually become a European standard. EBICS allows for the simple execution of SEPA payment transfers, while account information can be used with established formats, resulting in seamless single-technology communication among all European financial institutions.
EBICS provides many benefits for international banks and related financial institutions, including:
- Open standard. EBICS allows corporates and banks to choose between standard (open source) or more customized software applications to meet ISO 20022 requirements.
- Globally recognized standards. Data file exchange is achieved over the internet using common international standards for internet communication and security requirements. XML, https, TLS, SSL and ZIP are all formats that support the EBICS.
- Exceptional security.The EBICS payment system is supported by an extremely high security protocol, offering end-to-end encryption using electronic data signatures at both transport and application level.
- Single source transactions. EBICS streamlines common business transactions from cash management to direct debits and credit transfers, account statements and more. It also allows businesses to automatize processes once dependent on manual entry and review of vast amounts of payment data.