Euro Banking Association

The Euro Banking Association (EBA), also referred to adding its French acronym ABE-EBA (Association bancaire pour l'euro), is a trade association for the European payments industry with close to 200 member banks and organisations from the European Union and around the world aimed at fostering and driving pan-European payment initiatives. The ABE-EBA has strived to contribute to the creation of a standardised Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).

History and structure
The ABE-EBA was founded in Paris in 1985 by 18 commercial banks and the European Investment Bank. The European Commission as well as the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) supported the founding of the ABE-EBA. Since then, the number of members has risen to almost 200. The institutions come from all member states of the European Union as well as from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, China, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

In its early years, the agenda of the ABE-EBA included the promotion of the European Monetary Union (EMU) and the development and management of a private industry ECU clearing system stretching across Europe.

Through its affiliate EBA Clearing, the ABE-EBA has developed significant market infrastructures of its own. These include EURO1, a real-time gross settlement-equivalent large-value payment system for single euro transactions; STEP1, a payment service for single euro payments of high priority and urgency for small and medium-sized banks; and STEP2, a Pan-European Automated Clearing House which processes euro retail payments. EURO1 and STEP2 are designated as Systemically Important Payment Systems.

Leadership
In 1986, the ABE-EBA appointed Gilbert Lichter as its secretary-general, a position he held until 1989 and again from 1992 to 2016. Since 2016, the secretary-general of the ABE-EBA has been Mr Thomas Egner.