The Central Bank of Iceland operates its real-time gross settlement system as part of the MBK interbank payment platform. MBK also comprises the EXP instant payment system and PAYHUB. CBI launched the current platform on October 23, 2020. The platform replaced a legacy mainframe RTGS that had been in service since approximately 2001. SIA, now part of the Nexi Group, supplied the underlying Perago technology. The system can process up to five million payments per day. Each transaction settles in under 40 milliseconds.
The RTGS component processes transactions of ISK 10 million or more. All payments below that threshold route through EXP, which operates around the clock. This mandatory routing has driven a significant shift of retail payment volumes from RTGS to instant processing. Iceland first launched fast payments in 2003, making it one of the earliest adopters of real-time retail settlement. Approximately eight institutions participate directly in the RTGS. Participants include Iceland's three commercial banks, savings bank associations, CBI itself, and Euroclear and Clearstream as international central securities depositories.
Iceland signed a TIPS participation agreement in 2025. The agreement adds the Icelandic krona as the fifth currency on the Eurosystem's instant payment settlement platform from 2028. CBI has indicated it will assess broader Eurosystem TARGET participation, starting with TIPS and potentially extending to T2.