Payments made fast, safe and simple – better than cash
What is I-Pago?
I-Pago is the brand name for the new instant payments platform launched in January 2020. Functioning as the local clearing house, one of the strategic goals of the Centrale Bank van Aruba (CBA) is to modernize the payment infrastructure to enhance its efficiency, reliability, and security. Modernization will raise its standard to a level in line with the prevailing international best practices. Therefore, in close collaboration with the commercial banks, the CBA has decided to introduce a new payment platform called Instant Payments Clearing & Settlement Mechanism (IP CSM) or I-Pago. This new payment platform enables participants, such as the commercial banks, to offer instant payments in Aruba.
What are instant payments?
With instant payments, transferred funds between banks in Aruban florin are made available on the account of the payee / end-customer within seconds, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year.
5
steps of I-Pago
The originator fills in the payment details and sends the payment to his/her bank.
The originating bank debits its customer’s account and sends the payment to the CBA IP CSM (the start of the 5-10 seconds*).
The CBA IP CSM validates the beneficiary account via the beneficiary bank.
The CBA IP CSM settles the payment between the two banks.
The CBA IP CSM notifies the originating bank and the beneficiary bank of the successful settlement, and each bank notifies the end-customers (the end of the 5-10 seconds*).
Definition of instant payments
Money transfer between bank accounts and between banks
24/7/365 availability – multi-channel initiation
Real-time processing – processed in seconds
Payment is final and immediate confirmation
Payee has immediate access to funds
The benefits of instant payments
With instant payments, you can send and receive electronic payments anytime. The beneficiary has immediate confirmation about the receipt and even access to the received funds.
For e-commerce purposes, instant payments eliminate the risk for online merchants of not getting paid as well as the risk for the customer of not receiving the goods despite having paid, because the release of goods and services can be quickly synchronized with the payment.
For business-to-business payments, instant payments improve cash flow, make it easier to manage funds, reduce late payments and speed up the payment of invoices, even when the customers’ accounts are at different banks.
Participating banks
The tariff
| Preliminary tariff | Actual tariff | ||
| 2020 (first year) | 2020 (first year) | Afl. 0.70 | Afl. 0.46 |
| 2021 | Afl. 0.46 | Afl. 0.35 | |
| 2022 | Afl. 0.35 | Afl. 0.23 | |
| 2023 | Afl. 0.23 | Afl. 0.20 | |
| 2024 | Afl. 0.20 | To be determined in January 2025 |
Since the go-live in 2020 until the end of 2022 the CBA subsidized all transactions below a value of Afl. 250, making these transactions free of charge to the commercial banks in order to stimulate the use of I-Pago. In view of the success of I-Pago since its launch in 2020, the CBA has decided that the subsidy to stimulate its use was not necessary anymore and thus amended the tariff structure that was valid until then. Therefore, as of January 1, 2023 the (preliminary and actual) tariff applies to all transactions, irrespective of the value, but excluding timed-out and/or rejected transactions.
In 2024, a fixed preliminary tariff of Afl. 0.20 per transaction applies. The fixed preliminary tariff will be charged to each participant based on its share of the total transactions successfully processed through the CBA IP CSM, excluding timed-out and/or rejected transactions.
After the end of the calendar year (in January 2025), the CBA shall calculate the final fixed tariff, irrespective of the value of the transaction, for the preceding calendar year taking into account the actual number of transactions successfully processed though the CBA IP CSM, excluding timed-out and/or rejected transactions.
Possible future use cases
The new I-Pago payment infrastructure provides the technology to implement further modernization of the new payment system, e.g., by introducing the following future use cases. However, their availability will depend on the deployment thereof by the participating banks.
Web Payments
Web payment services are online services that manage the transfer of funds from the customer to the merchant of an e-commerce website.
Mobile Payments
Mobile payments are payments performed via a mobile device. There are different ways in which mobile payments can take place, for example:
- Card-based, where a customer enters their card information to make payments.
- Contactless/ Near Field Communication (NFC), where payment is conducted by mobile devices equipped with a smartcard, when these are in the proximity of a reader module.
- Direct transfers between payer and payee bank accounts at different banks.
Request for Pay
Request for pay is a secure messaging service that allows electronic payment requests for specific payments to be sent to the debtor account.
Other places applying instant payments
Europe
Mexico
Brazil
Publications
Brochure (ENG)
Position Paper Enabling Instant Payment Innovations in Aruba (ENG)
Enabling Instant Payment Innovations in Aruba (ENG)
Enabling Instant Payment Innovations in Aruba (PAP)
I-Pago Now Available In Aruba PR (PAP)
Position Paper Roadmap Towards a Modern Payment Infrastructure Nov 2017 (ENG)
Results and Recommendations DNB Fact Finding Mission Aruba (ENG)
Results and Recommendations DNB Fact Finding Mission Aruba (NLD)
FAQ
FAQ