Consumers are able to benefit from faster and safer payments (and at no greater cost than a normal bank transfer) thanks to the EU’s Instant Payments Regulation that was agreed in 2024.

Why it’s important

In an increasingly fast-paced world, the traditional bank transfer – which can take a couple of days to execute – was becoming outdated. Instant Payments are a solution as the transferred money becomes available instantly on the recipient’s bank account. They are processed in real-time and can be made by consumers 24/7 by mobile or in a bank branch.

Instant Payments allow consumers to easily pay and receive money from family, friends, or merchants (e.g. one member of a group pays a restaurant bill and the others pay their share immediately with their phone).
Instant Payments offer more consumer choice in payments. For instance, consumers have only been able to pay by card or cash in shops until recently. Instant Payments open up new payment solutions between retail customers and merchants both in stores (e.g. via a QR code) and online.

What BEUC did

BEUC was active throughout the legislative process to ensure that consumers’ concerns were heard.

Notably, we managed to secure key consumer protections in the final legislation e.g. the introduction of an IBAN check for Instant Payments that automatically warns consumers if the recipient’s name does not match their bank account number in order to help prevent payment fraud.