EBICS

EBICS

What Is EBICS?

"Electronic Banking Internet Communication Standard" (EBICS) is a standardized, freely available Internet-based communication protocol for the transmission of files. The standard includes a multi-level security concept that safeguards the security of the transmitted data. It also ensures the traceability of all accesses and transfers.

In addition to its use for data transmission between corporate customers and financial institutions, EBICS is increasingly being used in the interbank area, by financial service providers and service bureaus. In addition to its widespread use in payments (payment orders, account statements, etc.), EBICS is also increasingly being used for securities and for the transmission of documents (pdf) and master data.

To maintain the standard, the German and French banking industries established the EBICS SC company. The Swiss financial services sector and the Austrian banking sector have since joined the company as well. However, the use of EBICS is spreading beyond these four countries into large parts of Europe.

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EBICS Standard for the Swiss Financial Center

A working group commissioned by the PaCoS (Payments Committee Switzerland) is developing Swiss Recommendations for implementing the EBICS standard in the Swiss financial services sector. This entails documentation of the EBICS configuration settings and parameters used by financial institutions for the Swiss financial services sector. More about this and other SIX mandates.

The Swiss Market Practice Guidelines EBICS supplement the documents that have been published by the EBICS company. The document is intended to provide assistance to software partners and users and provides relevant best-practice recommendations. The use of EBICS is optional for institutions in Switzerland.

Valid Versions of the Swiss Market Practice Guidelines EBICS

The Guidelines and other documents on EBICS can be found in the Download Center.

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Version 3.0

The recommendations for EBICS Version 3.0 will be supported by Swiss financial institutions from November 2021. The availability of this version for the migration of earlier EBICS versions (2.x) must be coordinated with the individual financial institutions.

Version 2.5

The present EBICS standard recommendations for the Swiss financial center have been supported by Swiss financial institutions since 2016.

EBICS 3.0

With EBICS version 3.0, the EBICS standard has been harmonized across all countries. Moreover, this version uses business transfer formats to identify transactions, which ensures better identification of business processes and formats. Furthermore, security-related requirements have been improved and the option to use CA-based certificates has been added.

In the Swiss market, the use of EBICS 3.0 equals greater flexibility and access to new transnational markets and customers. In Switzerland EBICS 3.0 is also required to be able to transmit the latest message versions within the scope of SPS 2022. These message versions are not backward-compatible with older EBICS versions.

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