Currently, households and companies use the mobile service Swish to send and receive instant payments. Swish payments are settled via the banks’ accounts in a private system called BiR (Betalningar i Realtid). The plan is for this to change in 2023, when Swish payments will be settled in RIX-INST. The advantage of this is that settlement can take place via the banks’ accounts with the Riksbank. Money in accounts at the Riksbank, known as central bank money, reduces risk during settlement. This is because the Riksbank cannot go bankrupt.

Another advantage for the banks of moving Swish to RIX-INST is that it is part of the same system as the settlement service for large-value payments (RIX-RTGS). Liquidity that participants have set aside for Swish or other instant payments (in RIX-INST) and large-value payments (in RIX-RTGS) will therefore be in the same system, which will allow participants to move their liquidity between the different services more easily on an almost 24-hour basis. It will also allow participants to reduce their costs for the liquidity used for instant payments.

In order to ensure that the renewal of the Swedish payment infrastructure does not come to a halt, it is of great importance that the banks prioritise the migration of Swish payments from BiR to RIX-INST.