The decision to move from a sole focus on reachability to mandating instant payments for all credit institutions has been a long time coming and is eagerly received by some parts of the industry (such as open banking providers). This important piece of regulation will drive instant payments to be the new normal for everyone, and goes a long way to fulfil the purpose the EU had in mind with instant payments in the first place.

The proposed legislation is extremely ambitious in terms of timelines and scope. Although there are likely to be some compromises under pressure from industry interest groups, banks cannot afford to wait to start reviewing their instant payment capabilities. Banks that are not yet SCT Inst capable need to start developing a roadmap, and banks that do propose the payment method need to assess their capacity limitations, as well as how they will propose the method across all payment initiation channels.

Discover the key considerations needed for existing and new players alike when implementing their SEPA Instant transformation strategy in our latest SEPA Instant overview.