The Regulation 260/2012 has served as the foundation for establishing the SEPA payment system, a service that has promoted the creation of an electronic payment market with no distinction between domestic and cross-border payments. To remain competitive, the SEPA initiative must be continuously renewed, allowing potential technological innovations to develop new payment products. Under this premise, the European Union has enacted a new Regulation aimed at encouraging instant payments.
Through the Regulation 886/2024, which amends the SEPA Regulation, the Union aims to promote the implementation of instant payments within the Single European Market across all payment services. The regulation defines an instant transfer as “a transfer that is executed immediately, 24 hours a day, on any calendar day.”
The new Regulation will require all payment service providers to offer their users the service of receiving and sending instant payments, 24 hours a day, on any calendar day. The Regulation establishes that payment services located in States whose currency is the euro must implement these systems by October 9, 2025. For payment services based in States where the legal tender is not the euro, the deadline is July 9, 2027.
The new law sets out a framework of requirements to implement instant payments with payment service providers. These include the need for instant transfers to be made through the same payment initiation channels used for standard transfers, as well as the obligation to make the amount of the instant transfer available to the recipient within ten seconds.
Another aspect regulated by the Regulation is the fees for transfers and verification. The Regulation states that payment service providers may not charge fees that exceed those charged “in connection with the sending and receiving of other equivalent transfers.” Furthermore, the instant payment beneficiary verification service must be offered free of charge to all users.
Financial Restrictive Measures and Anti-Money Laundering
For instant transfers, the Regulation sets out a framework for the application of financial countermeasures and internal anti-money laundering and terrorist financing prevention processes.
The Regulation defines a selective financial restrictive measure as: “the freezing of assets imposed on a person, organization, or entity, or the prohibition on making funds or economic resources available to a person, organization, or entity, or for their benefit, directly or indirectly, in accordance with restrictive measures adopted under Article 215 of the TFEU.”
First, regarding financial restrictive measures, the Regulation stipulates that payment service providers offering instant payment services must verify whether any of their customers are subject to international sanctions.
This verification must be carried out immediately after any new financial countermeasure or modification thereof takes effect — sanction monitoring — and at least once every calendar day — customer monitoring. In other words, a verification must be conducted every 24 hours to check if any user is subject to financial countermeasures. The Regulation specifies that the verification of selective financial restrictive measures should not be carried out during the execution of an instant transfer.
To provide greater legal certainty and enhance the reliability of instant transfer services, the Regulation specifies that the verification of selective financial restrictive measures should not take place during the execution of a transfer. This is intended to ensure that payment service providers verify the existence of financial restrictive measures daily — freezing assets when such a measure is detected — but not at the moment the transfer occurs.
As for anti-money laundering and terrorist financing prevention systems, the Regulation does not set out any specific requirements; these must comply with existing prevention regulations. However, the Regulation does allow such checks to be carried out in the context of immediate transfers. Each payment service provider, based on its assumed risk, will adjust its control systems in relation to instant transfers.
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