In November 2004, fourteen more banks from across the EU member states will connect to STEP2 as direct participants. They were admitted during a late September board meeting.
The newly admitted banks are: Aktia Savings Bank, Finland, Banca Popolare di Vicenza, Italy, Banco Totta & Acores, Portugal, Bank of Cyprus, Cyprus, Bank of Slovenia, Slovenia, Citibank N.A., UK, Credito Emiliano, Italy, De Nederlandsche Bank, Netherlands, Eesti Uhispank, Estonia, ICCREA, Italy, Sampo Bank, Finland, Socit Marseillaise de Crdit, France, Spar Nord Bank A/S, Denmark, and Unibanka A.S., Latvia.
By the end of the year, there will be 81 direct participants in STEP2. There are also more than 1300 indirect STEP2 participants that use a direct participant to connect to the system.
Currently, the STEP2 system processes on average 110,000 payments per day with peak days of over 200,000 transactions. STEP2 is now widely recognised as the Pan-European Automated Clearing House (PE-ACH) because it can provide payment distribution to all banks operating in the EU15.