High priority vs normal priority payments

A payment can be high priority when the use case requires near-instant confirmation of rejection, for example when paying in-store, or normal priority, for example when using Nexus for P2P or bill payments.

Whether a payment is high priority or not is flagged using the pacs.008 Instruction Priority element(/Document/FIToFICstmrCdtTrf/CdtTrfTxInf/PmtTpInf/InstrPrty/).

In general the Source PSP should set the Instruction Priority, based on what it knows about the type of payment that is being initiated. For example, payments to a retail business, or initiated by scanning a QR code, are more likely to be time sensitive. If the Sender is asked to select the priority, they should be informed of the implications of their choice.

High priority payments

High priority payments must only be accepted by the Destination IPS if the Destination IPS has made the final clearing and settlement of the transaction subject to a pacs.002 confirmation message from Nexus.

• The Source PSP should set the pacs.008 Instruction Priority to HIGH

• Within the timeout SLA of the Destination IPS, the Destination PSP must process the payment and return a pacs.002 with one of the following status codes:

  • ACCC – accepted and credited to recipient

  • RJCT – rejected

  • BLCK - funds blocked and will not be returned (due to suspicious or illicit activity)

• The Destination IPS must forward the pacs.002 to Nexus with the timeout SLA. Nexus will confirm receipt with a confirmation pacs.002 back to the Destination IPS. This allows the Destination IPS to finalize clearing and confirm to the Destination SAP and Destination PSP.

• In the scenario the Destination IPS does not receive a pacs.002 from the Destination PSP before the timeout SLA, the Destination IPS must cancel the payment and send a negative pacs.002 Nexus, rejecting the transaction.

• The pacs.002 will be forwarded to the Source IPS by Nexus to finalize the clearing in the Source country.

• In the scenario Nexus does not receive a pacs.002 from the Destination IPS before the timeout SLA, Nexus will send a negative pacs.002 to the Destination IPS and the Source IPS, rejecting the transaction.

• (Note: The Source SAP may only respond with ACCC or RJCT.)

Normal priority payments

• The Source PSP should set the pacs.008 Instruction Priority to NORM (pacs.008 element /Document/FIToFICstmrCdtTrf/CdtTrfTxInf/PmtTpInf/InstrPrty/ ) when the payment is not urgent.

• Within the technical timeout SLA of the Destination IPS, the Destination PSP must process the payment and send back a pacs.002 with one of the following status codes:

  • ACCC – accepted and credited to recipient

  • RJCT – rejected

  • BLCK – funds blocked and will not be returned (due to suspicious or illicit activity)

• The Destination IPS must forward the pacs.002 to Nexus with the timeout SLA. Nexus will confirm receipt with a confirmation pacs.002 back to the Destination IPS.

• The pacs.002 will flow from the Destination PSP to Destination IPS, to Nexus, to the Source IPS and finally to the Source PSP.

• In the scenario Nexus does not receive a pacs.002 from the Destination IPS before the timeout SLA, Nexus will wait until the pacs.002 is received, or a resend is requested by the Source PSP (through a resend of the original pacs.008, see Investigations).

• (Note: The Source SAP may only respond with ACCC or RJCT.)