Since August 2024, the Swiss National Bank has required banks to accept SIC5-based instant payments, with full rollout to all banks by the end of 2026. Unlike traditional batch systems that ran within business hours, instant payments must settle within ten seconds, every day, around the clock. This shift changes what monitoring and incident management must deliver: alerting thresholds, escalation paths, and KPIs built for batch operation were never designed for the real-time, zero-downtime demands of instant payments, creating a clear need for updated operational practices.

The thesis combines a systematic literature review, covering ITIL 4, observability and site reliability practices, and SIC5 and regulatory documentation, with qualitative expert interviews at the partner company. Interview findings were analysed through structured content analysis and compared against the theoretical requirements in a gap analysis. From this, a four-pillar operational framework was designed and then validated in walkthrough sessions with experienced practitioners, ensuring it is grounded in real operational practice.

The thesis delivers an integrated, practitioner-ready framework built on four pillars: monitoring and observability, incident management, KPI and SLA structures, and operational processes. It provides a structured requirements catalogue, a KPI and SLA catalogue with concrete thresholds tailored to sub-ten-second payment operations, and an escalation and incident-response model designed for 24/7 coverage.For the client, the framework turns abstract real-time requirements into actionable guidance: alerting calibrated to instant-payment latencies, clear severity levels and escalation paths for major incidents, and on-call and shift-handover routines suited to zero-downtime operation. It helps the organisation safeguard system availability, meet regulatory expectations, and respond faster and more consistently when incidents occur. Validated with operational experts, the framework offers a reusable blueprint that strengthens the reliability of instant payment services as Switzerland completes its rollout to all banks by the end of 2026.