The European Payments Council has issued a Request for Proposal to find an outsourced service provider for a new Sepa-wide Malware Information Sharing Platform to address real-time payments fraud risks.

With instances of fraud and scams on the way up, the new platform will aim to provide real-time fraud information sharing with direct browser access by all payment scheme participants.

In a document, the EPC states: "With the advent of Sepa instant payments, it became clear that the existing process for prioritising payment blocking requests related to fraud (through a bi-lateral email exchange process) is insufficient for contacting the appropriate persons related to payment blocking requests in case of fraudulent transactions in a timely manner."

The EPC is looking for a "reliable independent service provider" to which it can outsource the management and the maintenance of the EPC MISP instance. It is expected that the platform will be fully operational and available to all payment scheme participants by February 2022 following three months of pilot testing.

Vendors with a legitimate interest and meeting the eligibility criteria sdhould submit their application by close of business on the 28th of May.