EBA Clearing, a provider of pan-European payment infrastructure products, has signed a letter of intent with Italy's SIA Group to develop a pan-European real-time infrastructure product by the fourth quarter of 2017.

In a press release today, EBA Clearing said that SIA's role will be to support EBA as its technical solution provider in the creation and implementation of the proposed real-time payment system. 

"Signing a letter of intent represents a significant milestone in our company's journey towards delivering a pan-European infrastructure solution for instant payments in cooperation with SIA," Hays Littlejohn, EBA Clearing CEO, said in a statement. "As a next step, we are now inviting interested payment service providers to join our initiative. We look forward to working with SIA and these pilot users on the development of a platform that can be used for instant payments both at a domestic and cross-border level."