Since 1987 the SIC system has continually, reliably and efficiently performed its daily operations. SIC settles payments in real time processing, Monday through Friday, 24 hrs/day, with monitoring and supervision performed by the Swiss National Bank (SNB).

This animated presentation illustrates, by clicking on the small picture to the left, all worth knowing of the Swiss payment traffic system SIC. It is part of Swiss Interbank Clearing's interactive Guided Tour. Navigation tips. Macromedia Flash is required to view the Guided Tour. This software can be downloaded here for free.

Structure

Each participating financial institution maintains a settlement account with SIC, which is balanced daily with the use of a sight deposit account at the SNB. The SNB, as the supervising entity of SIC, has the option to verify cover-funds of any and all financial institutions and – if deemed necessary – provide a participant with the necessary funds or grant appropriate credits. SIC participants have real-time access to all data relating to their own account. They can directly monitor the settlement of incoming and outgoing payments, current accounting balances as well as pending incoming and outgoing transfers.

Process

Payments can be submitted online 24 hrs. The following data is then verified:

• Electronic signature
• Input authorization according to master data file
• Payment structure
• Double entry verification/control

Based on these verifications, either a confirmation- or error-message is generated and forwarded to the ordering financial institution.

After successfully verifying available funds, the payment is irrevocably settled and forwarded to the receiving participant, who generates and returns an electronic receipt. If the ordering bank does not have the necessary funds available, the payment is routed to a wait-file, pending appropriate liquidity.

Access

The links to SIC are provided in two ways:

• By means of industry standard interfaces or by proprietary software of the participants. This allows for indivdualized integration to the existing hardware and software systems of each participant. These systems are therefore exceptionally well suited for large amounts of data.
• By means of remoteGATE, a gateway via SWIFT and Internet, in a simple and inexpensive way especially for participants with lower transaction volumes.

Intraday liquidity

The SNB has been offering interest-free intraday liquidity repos for repo contract partners since October, 1999, both nationally and internationally. Participants are able to resort to this liquidity any time between 8 am and 2:45 pm.

Participation in the Swiss repo market

Financial institutions worldwide may participate under certain conditions in the Eurex Swiss repo market managed by SIS SegaInterSettle AG, Swiss Interbank Clearing Ltd. and SNB within the Swiss Value Chain.

This animated presentation illustrates, by clicking on the small picture to the left, all worth knowing of the Swiss Value Chain, the Swiss financial market infrastructure. It is part of Swiss Interbank Clearing's interactive Guided Tour. Navigation tips. Macromedia Flash is required to view the Guided Tour. This software can be downloaded here for free.