When the National Bank of Poland activated SORBNET3 on September 8, 2025, it completed a multi-year effort to replace the SORBNET2 platform that had served Poland's interbank settlement needs since 2013. The migration, executed over a single weekend, marks one of the rare instances in recent European history where a central bank has built a completely new RTGS platform rather than incrementally upgrading an existing one.
SORBNET3 was designed from inception around the ISO 20022 messaging standard, using MX payment messages in XML format. This stands in contrast to many of its European peers that have undertaken complex migrations from legacy SWIFT MT formats to ISO 20022. The decision to build natively on the standard gives Polish banks access to richer transaction data, improved interoperability with other European payment systems, and better straight-through processing rates. The alignment also positions SORBNET3 well for potential future integration with the Eurosystem's TARGET platform.
The system serves as the settlement backbone for all high-value and time-critical payments in Polish zloty. Its approximately 50 direct participants include 45 domestic banks, the Polish Credit Union Association, and four key financial market infrastructure operators: KIR (the national clearing house), KDPW and KDPW_CCP (the central securities depository and its clearing counterpart), and the Polish Payment Standard foundation. All monetary policy operations, interbank financial market transactions, large-value customer orders, and net settlement from retail payment systems flow through SORBNET3.
In SORBNET2's final full year of operation, the system processed approximately 22,500 transactions per day with a daily average value of PLN 543 billion, according to BIS CPMI statistics. SORBNET3 inherits this transaction base and is expected to show comparable or growing volumes as Poland's economy continues to digitize.
A significant regulatory development arrived on January 23, 2026, when the Polish Sejm passed legislation implementing the EU's Payment Services Directive that will grant non-bank payment institutions and electronic money institutions direct access to designated payment systems for the first time. Once enacted following Senate review, licensed payment institutions will be able to connect directly to both SORBNET3 and the Elixir retail clearing system, eliminating their current dependence on correspondent banking arrangements with commercial banks. This represents a structural shift in the Polish payments landscape, aligning it with broader European trends toward opening critical payment infrastructure to non-bank participants.
SORBNET3 operates alongside two other key domestic payment systems. Elixir, the batch ACH system operated by KIR, handles retail credit transfers and direct debits. Express Elixir, also operated by KIR, provides instant payment settlement around the clock. The three systems together form a comprehensive layered architecture: SORBNET3 for large-value gross settlement, Elixir for high-volume batch processing, and Express Elixir for real-time retail transfers. The transaction fee structure reflects this tiered approach, with SORBNET3 charging PLN 4 per transaction for amounts of PLN 1 million or higher and PLN 9 for smaller transactions.
Poland's investment in a modern RTGS platform comes at a time of rapid transformation across European payment infrastructure. The ECB is consulting on extending T2 settlement hours toward around-the-clock operation, the Eurosystem is expanding TIPS for cross-border instant settlement including exploration of a link to Switzerland's SIC IP, and ISO 20022 adoption continues to accelerate across the continent. With SORBNET3, Poland has equipped itself with infrastructure that meets current European standards and carries the flexibility to adapt to the requirements ahead.