Domestic
PAYMENTS SIGNAL · REFERENCE CARDA SIC payment (Swiss RTGS)
A Swiss franc interbank payment settles one order at a time across the banks' sight deposit accounts at the Swiss National Bank, in real time and with finality — but only if cover is there.
Actors
- Bank Alfa (sending bank)bank
- SIC / SIX Interbank Clearinginfrastructure
- Swiss National Bank (SNB)infrastructure
- Nordbank (receiving bank)bank
Messages
No standard message — a book / internal transfer.
The sequence
| # | Step | Route | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SIC payment order — Bank Alfa submits the payment order | Bank Alfa → SIC | message |
| 2 | Check cover — SIC verifies sufficient cover | SIC | internal |
| 3 | Gross settlement — SIC settles the payment on SNB sight deposit accounts | Bank Alfa → Nordbank | settlement |
| 4 | Settlement confirmation — Nordbank is confirmed of the settled payment | SIC → Nordbank | message |
| 5 | Book the funds — Nordbank books the funds | Nordbank | posting |
Exception rails
| Rail | Trigger | Where the money ends up | Next action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Not enough cover — held in the queue | Bank Alfa's SIC settlement account does not hold CHF 1,200,000.00 of SNB sight deposit balance when the order is checked. | Not yet paid to the beneficiary; the order is held in SIC's queue until Bank Alfa has cover. · Settlement waited on cover — the order did not settle until the SNB sight deposit balance was sufficient. | Bank Alfa — Bank Alfa manages its intraday liquidity so its SNB sight deposit account can cover outgoing SIC orders. |