SPEI-the 24/7 Money Transfer Solution

Technology now has an impact on almost every facet of daily life. Information is at the user’s fingertips and processes that once required face-to-face interaction can now be completed digitally. Today, consumers want to do more online, including daily payments and collection transactions. Mexico’s Interbank Electronic Payments System (SPEI) began operating on Aug. 13, 2004, and allows payments to be made digitally.
SPEI is a large-value funds transfer system in which participants (Banxico and the entities that have signed a contract with the central bank to participate in the SPEI and can send and receive transfer orders) can do straight-processing among themselves, on their own behalf or for their customers. By the end of the year, a number of key changes to the SPEI framework will make it even easier to process retail payments to purchase goods or services, or to pay out rent and perform other monetary transactions over the internet or from or to a cellphone.
One key element of the SPEI system is that transactions are possible between any financial entity regulated by any of the Mexican financial authorities and those belonging to the Federal Public Administration. The new provisions widen the scope of participating institutions beyond banks, brokerage houses and insurers, in a major step to further the use of digital payments across the country. For example, STP, a 100 percent nonbank Mexican company participating in the SPEI system, offers SPEI electronic payments software as a service platform to third-party client to foster fintech and disruptive financial companies regarding electronic real-time 24/7 payments. Possible transactions include the payment of school fees, recreational fees, wages or even car loans and mortgage remittances and virtual assets settlement.
Banxico, which oversees the SPEI system, has also authorized the launching in 2018 of automated charges through the system’s “SPEI Pull” feature. Digital payment systems allow users to perform electronic transactions from almost anywhere, but the system’s working hours had been restricted to banking hours for those participants that could not comply efficiently with this new operating window. A mandatory change will start Dec. 29, 2017, when mobile banking will function 24/7 for transactions below MX$8,000.
Security features include the mandatory issuance of receipts for SPEI transactions and an Electronic Payment Receipt (CEP) that is issued by Banxico and acts as a proof of payment. All transactions are made through a protected network for added safety.