EU Commission paves way for instant payment across the EU

Context

After a series of long discussions and exchanges with industry stakeholders, the EU Commission issued its draft regulation on instant payments on 25 October 2022, as a part of its digital retail payment agenda from 2020.

This project mark one of the major updates of the SEPA regulation since its release in 2012. It will complete the EU framework for payments and help render mainstream instant payments on a crossborder and pan-EU basis, as was already seen under PSD2.

The regulation is also in line with ECB instant payment evolution, which further enables this project.
 

Purpose

The EU commission project consists of four requirements regarding euro instant payments:

• Making instant euro payments universally available: EU payment service providers that already offer credit transfers in euro are also obligated to offer their instant version within a defined period.
• Making instant euro payments affordable: EU payment service providers are obligated to ensure that the price charged for instant payments in euro does not exceed the price charged for traditional, non-instant credit transfers in euro.
• Increasing trust in instant payments: EU payment service providers are obligated to verify the match between the bank account number (IBAN) and the name of the beneficiary provided by the payer in order to alert the payer of a possible mistake or fraud before the payment is made.
• Removing friction in instant euro payment processing while preserving the effectiveness of screening of persons that are subject to EU sanctions: Payment service providers will operationalize this with daily reviews of their clients against EU sanctions lists, instead of screening all transactions one by one.

Payment service providers – as well as banks supporting payments or being providers of payment services themselves – will see the biggest impact of this new regulation.

The text is still at an early stage. It needs approval and agreement from the European Parliament and Council before publication in the official journal. Next comes transposition, often adding 18 to 24 months in delays. However, the project is launched and will become applicable in the near future.
 

Why is it important for me?

If you are a bank and or a payment infrastructure provider, then this regulation will require your organization to adapt processes and infrastructure to deal with these changes. With a projected timeline of 18-24 months before entry into force, you still have time to prepare before delving into the project phase.

Deloitte can assist you with its regwatch solution to help you stay ahead of the regulatory wave.

Deloitte can also help you assess, define and implement the adequate changes and strategies to comply with this regulation and integrate these new requirements in your business development strategy. Our experts in payments, banking and strategy can accompany you all along the regulatory journey until the live date of this new regulatory opportunity

Contacts

Regulatory Watch Kaleidoscope service

Arnaud Duchesne
Managing Director – Risk Advisory
Tel: +352 661451443
aduchesne@deloitte.lu