The EU wants to extend the possibility of making instant transfers to everyone: “Savings on costs and businesses”

The European Commission wants to extend the possibility of making instant bank transfers to all EU citizens and businesses with a current account.
At the beginning of 2022, only 11% of all euro transfers in the EU were instant. “Instant payments allow people to transfer money at any time of the day in ten seconds. As a result, they significantly increase speed, help to significantly improve cash flow and lead to cost savings for businesses, especially SMEs, including merchants, ‘explains the Commission.

The Commission’s objective
Furthermore, “they release money currently blocked in transit in the financial system, the so-called” payment float “, which can be used first for consumption or investments (almost 200 billion euros are blocked per day)”.

The four requirements
The proposal, which amends and updates the 2012 regulation on the single regulation on payments in euro (Sepa), consists of four requirements. The first is “making instant euro payments universally available, with the obligation for EU payment service providers that already offer euro transfers to also offer their instant version within a defined period,” explained the Commission. .

The second is “making instant payments in euros accessible, with the obligation for payment service providers to ensure that the price charged for instant payments in euros does not exceed the price charged for traditional non-instant euro transfers”, added the EU executive.

The third requirement is “to increase confidence in instant payments, with the obligation for suppliers to verify the correspondence between the bank account number (Iban) and the name of the payee provided by the payer in order to alert the payer of a possible error or fraud before payment is made ‘.

The fourth is “to eliminate the frictions in the processing of instant payments in euro while preserving the effectiveness of the screening of persons subject to EU sanctions, through a procedure whereby payment service providers will check their customers at least daily. to the lists of EU sanctions, instead of examining all the transactions one by one ”, concludes the EU executive.

Dombrosvskis: making the most of opportunities
“Instant payments are fast becoming the norm in many countries. They should be accessible to everyone in Europe, so that they remain globally competitive and make the most of the innovation opportunities offered by the digital age. People earn with more choice and convenience, businesses earn with better cash flow control and lower operating costs. Today’s proposal will strengthen our economy, make it more efficient and help it grow, ”explained Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrosvskis.

An epochal transition
«The transition from“ next day ”transfers to“ ten second ”transfers is seismic and comparable to the shift from mail to email. Yet today, nearly nine out of ten euro transfers are still processed as traditional “slow” transfers. There is no reason why many citizens and businesses in the EU are unable to send and receive money immediately, the technology to provide instant payments has been in place since 2017, ”said Commissioner for Financial Services, Mairead McGuinness.