Germany's Retail Payment System (RPS), operated by the Deutsche Bundesbank, processed 8,294.8 million transactions worth EUR 4.8 trillion in 2024, an 8.0 percent increase in volume and 6.7 percent increase in value compared with 7,681.6 million transactions and EUR 4.5 trillion in 2023. The growth brings daily averages to approximately 32.9 million transactions and EUR 19 billion in value, confirming RPS as the primary national clearing channel for German SEPA payments alongside EBA Clearing's STEP2 and bilateral arrangements.
Despite this volume growth, RPS has lost its position among Europe's three largest retail payment systems. The European Central Bank's H1 2025 payments statistics show that Mastercard Clearing Management System (MCMS) overtook RPS in H2 2024, making the new top three MCMS, STEP2-T, and STET's CORE(FR). These three systems now handle 67 percent of euro area retail payment volume and 64 percent of value.
The displacement reflects a structural shift in European retail payments rather than any decline in RPS activity. Card payment clearing volumes across Europe have grown as digital and contactless transactions accelerate, with MCMS processing an increasing share of the continent's card authorizations. STEP2-T and CORE(FR) have consolidated their positions as the leading interbank clearing mechanisms for SEPA credit transfers and direct debits across multiple countries, while RPS handles only domestic German traffic routed through the Bundesbank.
RPS serves Germany's banking community across SEPA credit transfers, SEPA direct debits, and national cheque processing. Germany maintains the highest direct debit share in the euro area at 31 percent of all non-cash payments, according to ECB H1 2025 data. This reliance on direct debits distinguishes the German market from France, where STET reports that instant payments now represent 20 percent of all credit transfers.
The Bundesbank operates RPS as a cost-effective settlement platform for non-urgent payments, with final settlement in TARGET. Unlike pan-European CSMs such as STEP2, RPS processes only domestic German traffic, making it a national complement to cross-border SEPA clearing infrastructure. The system remains one of the largest single-country retail payment platforms in Europe by transaction count.
The European Payments Council's November 2026 deadline for eliminating unstructured address formats in SEPA messages will require all RPS participants to update their payment processing systems. The ongoing migration toward ISO 20022 structured data and the accelerating adoption of SEPA instant credit transfers continue to reshape the balance between batch and real-time clearing volumes in Germany.