Generally speaking, a payment has the purpose of extinguishing a claim, a debt further to a commercial or financial transaction. It requires the use of a payment instrument, be it the fiduciary currency (coins and notes) or other payment instruments like the bank transfer, the cheque, the debit or credit card, or the electronic money.
On the contrary to fiduciary money, which is directly exchanged, the use of these payment instruments involves that the funds are transferred from the bank account of the payer to the bank account of the payee. As accounts are often held in different credit institutions, transfers from one institution to the other are executed through an interbank payment system. A payment system could be defined as a set of instruments, banking procedures and, typically, interbank funds transfer systems that ensure the circulation of money (in its broad meaning).
Having in mind the large volumes and the considerable amounts they handle, payments systems ought to be reliable and efficient so that they neither compromise economic transactions nor the good functioning of our modern market economy.
Systems are designed for large-value payments or for retail payments.
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