In addition, the Bundesbank also offers an electronic procedure intended specifically for the handling of mass payments (credit transfers, cheques and direct debits), namely the Retail Payment System (RPS). (The principal features of the above-mentioned payment systems of the Deutsche Bundesbank are described in Section 3.) Apart from operating national payment systems with a European linkage to TARGET, the Bundesbank also processes cross-border and cross-currency payments via AZV (Auslandszahlungsverkehr; Cross- border Payment Services). For this reason it holds bilateral accounts with credit institutions abroad. Since March 1995, banks have also been able to process incoming and outgoing cross-border payments via the.
