Adopted by the European Parliament and the European Council in March 2024, the Instant Payments Regulation (IPR) was

set in motion to speed up the roll-out of instant payments in Europe and cover credit transfers denominated in euro within the EU. This regulation also amends the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) regulation, adds specific provisions on instant credit transfers
in euro to the
cross-border payments regulation, the
Settlement Finality Directive (SFD) and
PSD2.

  • 9 January 2025 – Euro area Member States
  • 9 January 2027 – Non-euro area Member States
  • 9 April 2027 – Electronic money institutions and payment institutions in euro area and non-euro area Member States

 

Sending instant payments 

  • 9 October 2025 – Euro area Member States
  • 9 April 2027 – Electronic money institutions and payment institutions in euro area Member States
  • 9 July 2027 – Non-euro area Member States
  • 9 July 2027 – Electronic money institutions and payment institutions in non-euro area Member States
  • 9 June 2028 – Outside business hours from payment accounts denominated in national currency in non-euro area Member States 

  • 9 January 2025 – Euro area Member States
  • 9 January 2027 – Non-euro area Member States 

 

Verification of Payee 

  • 9 October 2025 – Euro area Member States
  • 9 July 2027 – Non-euro area Member States 

 

9 October 2025: A turning point for Eurozone payments 

Today, 9 October 2025, marks the deadline for Euro area Member States to send instant credit transfers and to offer verification of payee services. Is Europe ready? EBA Clearing Services announced that “PSPs across the eurozone passed an important regulatory
milestone today with the support of RT1, STEP2 SCT and FPAD VOP.”

They added that “9 October 2025 marks a key change date for the European payments ecosystem, since the Verification of Payee (VOP) obligations for credit institutions in the eurozone and other major IPR requirements kicked in today. Aside from providing
its users with upgraded RT1 SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) and STEP2 SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) Services complying with the new obligations, EBA CLEARING also delivered a pan-European VOP solution enabling RT1 SCT Inst and STEP2 SCT users to leverage
its network-based Fraud Pattern and Anomaly Detection functionality (FPAD) for meeting the IPR VOP requirements.”

Hays Littlejohn, CEO of EBA Clearing, says: “The EBA CLEARING user community has been leading pan-European instant payments since 2017. We were also the first to introduce a network-based fraud-fighting functionality for SCT and SCT Inst payments at a pan-European
level. 9 October 2025 is an important milestone for the European payments industry, and we are glad that we have been able to help our users with the complex challenges they have been facing at PSP level.” 

 

Beyond borders: The expanding scope of SEPA compliance

Fiserv reiterates that while non-EU financial institutions in the European Economic Area (EEA) have until 2027 to comply, and those in SEPA but outside the EU and EEA – like UK banks – face no set deadline, some PSPs may wrongly assume they’re unaffected.
However, in practice, the operational and competitive pressures of SEPA compliance are likely to impact them nonetheless.

Rossana Thomas, vice president and head of payment solutions at Fiserv, comments: “Regulation and standards should be treated as more than a compliance box-tick – they provide the foundations for service levels that all providers should aim to function at,
whether they are compulsory or not. Regardless of location, PSPs with multinational customers will be at a competitive disadvantage if they disregard SEPA instant payments.”

“PSPs that thrive will be the ones that prioritise regulatory compliance while updating legacy systems, including cloud migration and real-time fraud monitoring tools. For instance, banks ought to consider adopting adaptive machine models that adjust to
new fraud patterns. These models differentiate genuine transactions from abnormal ones by analysing contextual signals like location, device, and transaction history, rather than static parameters.”

 

Verification of Payee: A new standard for trust

Victor Mithouard, senior director, payments, Mambu, shares his view: “Europe is often accused of being slow, overregulated and resistant to innovation. The go live of the Verification of Payee infrastructure proves otherwise. From 9 October, all payment
service providers in the euro area are required to verify that the name of the payee matches the account number before a transfer is made. This simple but significant step will help prevent an estimated €2.4 billion in fraud each year.”

“The regulation shows how policy can protect consumers while encouraging innovation. By addressing the growing threat of AI-driven impersonation and authorised push payment fraud, Europe is setting a new global standard for safe and trusted digital finance.
Delivering this infrastructure in just one year, compared with five years in the United Kingdom and no comparable system in the United States, demonstrates what is possible when regulation and technology move together.”

 

B2B benefits and treasury transformation

Laurent Descout, CEO and co-founder, Neo, says: “The October deadline represents a transformative moment for Europe’s payments landscape. The EU Instant Payments Regulation will deliver major benefits, particularly for the B2B sector. By harmonising systems
across Europe, businesses can execute faster, lower-cost payments, improving liquidity management and freeing up working capital.

“But the shift brings challenges. Banks and PSPs, long dependent on legacy systems, have faced, and will continue to face, significant hurdles in meeting the 10-second, 24/7 payment expectation, while maintaining reliable customer support and robust fraud
and validation controls. With the €100,000 cap removed, firms also need stronger liquidity buffers, but this encourages smarter treasury planning and real-time cash management.

“While these demands may seem daunting, they create opportunity. Firms that adopt modern infrastructure and partner with innovative fintechs can turn compliance into a competitive advantage, streamlining treasury operations and fully unlocking the potential
of instant payments.

 

Infrastructure resilience: The tech behind the transformation

Grant Harper, global lead for financial services, ITRS, comments: “While the benefits of instant payments for consumers and businesses are clear, tech teams have been working hard behind the scenes to make them a reality. Supporting 24/7/365 availability
is no small task – it demands highly resilient IT systems, not just internally but across third-party vendors as well. The implications of downtime for any bank are serious, but the consequences are even more profound under SEPA Instant.

“Even a brief outage could prevent a bank from sending or receiving payments, risking compliance breaches, customer dissatisfaction, and long-term reputational damage. In this new landscape, there is no room for error and ensuring always-on operations is
an absolute necessity. Banks are finding ways to meet this challenge, and if they haven’t already, investment in comprehensive IT monitoring and observability needs to be the first port of call. Real-time alerts – not minutes or hours later – are essential.
A unified ‘single pane of glass’ view across the IT estate enables tech teams to detect and resolve issues before they impact the bank’s ability to process transactions in seconds.”

 

Rewiring the cross-border plumbing

Mike Walters, CEO, Form3, comments: “The industry is still dependent on correspondent-bank networks built in the 1970s. These are costly, opaque and full of friction, requiring banks around the world to hold multiple nostro accounts, bear liquidity costs,
and patch legacy cores with ‘band-aids’ just so they can talk to each other. As a result, cross-border payments are still expensive.

“Regulators, banks, and the FSB all have a part to play when it comes to improving cross-border payments, but their responses have been characterised by caution and resistance to a full infrastructure overhaul. While the FSB sets high-level expectations,
it cannot take concrete action across borders.

“Until regulators and banks rewire the actual plumbing to enable 24/7 operation and seamless interoperability, customers will still end up paying. If the G-20 wants to reduce costs, the next move must be to harmonise regulation, mandate real-time settlement
across jurisdictions, and perhaps most importantly, build open and resilient cross-border rails.”

 

Instant payments as a catalyst for banking transformation

Santhosh Kumar, senior business analyst, RedCompass Labs, explains: “Payments in Europe are becoming instant by default. Every euro-area PSP must now be able to move money in under ten seconds – anytime, any day. This marks a complete rewiring of how payments
operate. But instant payments aren’t just changing the speed of transactions, they’re transforming the entire banking ecosystem.

“Cash pooling and treasury functions now have to manage liquidity in real time. End-of-day processing, interest calculations, and core banking systems must remain continuously available. Reporting and reconciliation are no longer end-of-day tasks but 24/7
responsibilities. Even customer channels and applications are expected to stay up and running on weekends and holidays.

“True instant payments will only be achieved when every friction across the payment journey is removed. This isn’t about simply ticking the IPR regulation box. It’s about redefining the customer experience and strengthening the value proposition for corporate
clients.

“What began as a compliance requirement has evolved into a full-scale business transformation. Instant payments cannot succeed without payments modernisation. This is where AI plays a pivotal role – enabling smarter fraud detection, sharper compliance, and
faster, data-driven decisions.”