The European Payments Council (EPC) is launching a call for candidates for Routing and/or Verification Mechanisms (RVM) in the Verification Of Payee (VOP) scheme to participate in the pilot of the EPC VOP API Reference Toolbox (ART).
The VOP scheme allows Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to meet the Instant Payment Regulation (IPR) requirement to offer an IBAN-name check service before payers authorise a payment via credit transfer or instant credit transfer. VOP is a scheme based on APIs that is expected to be implemented by thousands of PSPs in Europe, in time for the regulatory deadline of 9 October 2025.
Compliance with the VOP API specifications by both RVMs and by PSPs not using RVMs will be crucial for a successful go-live of the VOP scheme. To mitigate interoperability risks among VOP scheme participants, ahead of the scheme's go-live on 5 October 2025, the EPC decided to introduce the ART test and self-certification platform.
To ensure a successful introduction of ART, the EPC is looking for three RVMs that are available to participate in a pilot of this new platform. Preparation of the pilot will start as of 22 April 2025 and candidates must be technically ready to start testing with the ART platform as of 28 April 2025. The pilot will run for two to three weeks.
The EPC expects the participants to the pilot to submit a complete and signed RVM agreement prior to the start of the pilot.
How to participate
Organisations interested in participating to the ART pilot, are kindly invited to complete and submit the response form via email to [email protected] by 11 April 2025, midnight Brussels time.
To submit your response, please use the response form (EPC101-25), which can be downloaded here. Please verify that your organisation meets the pre-conditions for participation which are described in the form.
After the period to respond closes, the EPC will select three candidates taking in account geographical distribution, number of served PSPs and/or volume of VOP requests and responses the RVM expects to process, and – all other elements being similar - applying a random choice.
The EPC will provide feedback to the candidates asap. The selected candidates will receive a briefing prior to the start of the pilot.
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