Portugal in the age of EBICS

Just like the French banks in 2009 and the German banks in 2008, numerous Portuguese banks have decided to use the EBICS protocol for their exchange of financial flows with companies.

Two principal reasons have motivated this change:

1. The planned cessation of network X25 by Portugal Telecom from 30th June 2014,
2. The inability of certain protocols, utilised until now, to transfer files comprising records of varying sizes, as is the case with SEPA formats.

The Portuguese banks therefore had to suggest to their client companies a substitute exchange channel which was accessible, secure, inexpensive and operated across borders.


With their knowledge of the positive feedback about the migration and daily use of the EBICS protocol in Germany and France, these Portuguese banks decided to add the EBICS channel to their service portfolio. Moreover, some of them have decided to use the TRAVIC-Corporate software, the banking server edited by PPI.

The implemented EBICS version is version 2.4, identical to that currently in use in France. Up till now, only profile T has been operational.

The types of information exchanged via the EBICS channel are multifarious: domestic payments in PS2 format, Swift MT101 transfer orders, SEPA credit transfers (SCT) and direct debits (SDD), account statements, confirmations, rates and quotations for  currencies, proprietary formats for cheque letters and factoring, etc.

Furthermore, for some months now, some editors located in Portugal have been proposing company software supporting the EBICS protocol. This is particularly the case with METACASE, the Portuguese partner of PPI which implemented the management of the EBICS Target One protocol in the management platform of which METACASE is the editor. Implementing the EBICS protocol even before the Portuguese banks opened their channel was justified by the request from some Portuguese companies to be able to exchange financial flows with German and/or French banks.
The choice made by a majority of Portuguese banks therefore shows that the EBICS protocol is set to become a protocol widely deployed in Europe, thus contributing to exchanges between companies and banks within the SEPA zone which are secure, easier and inexpensive.

Marc Dutech