What are instant payments?

An instant payment in banking is a credit transfer from one payment account to another that is executed at once. The EU definition is in Article 2(1a) of the SEPA Regulation: an instant credit transfer is "a credit transfer which is executed immediately, 24 hours a day and on any calendar day".

The ECB describes instant payments as credit transfers that make funds available in a payee's account within ten seconds of the payment order (ECB, instant payments). All instant credit transfers in euro follow the SCT Inst scheme of the European Payments Council.

Instant payments work in the order that Article 5a(4) of the SEPA Regulation sets out. Between two banks, an instant payment works in four steps.

1. The payer's provider checks at once that the funds are there. It reserves or debits the amount and sends the transaction to the payee's provider.
2. The payee's provider credits the amount within 10 seconds of the receipt of the order and confirms the credit to the payer's provider.
3. The payer's provider tells the payer, free of charge, whether the money has arrived.
4. If no confirmation arrives within 10 seconds, the payer's provider restores the payer's account to its state before the transaction (Article 5a(5)).

The credit value date is the day of the credit. A customer can set a maximum amount for instant credit transfers, per day or per transaction (Article 5a(6)).

SEPA Instant is the short name of the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme. The difference between SEPA and SEPA Instant is the time limit and the hours of service. For a bank, SEPA Instant works through the rules of the scheme, and the law sets the 10 seconds.

SEPA Instant works on weekends too. The law counts every calendar day, so a transfer on a Sunday has the same 10 seconds. Under Article 5b the charges for an instant credit transfer are not higher than the charges of the same provider for other credit transfers of the same type.

The SEPA instant payments regulation, Regulation (EU) 2024/886, requires four things of a provider, each with its own date.

Payment institutions and electronic money institutions in the euro area have until April 9, 2027 for sending and receiving. Verification of the payee compares the name and the IBAN before the payer authorizes the transfer, and it is free of charge. Under Article 5d, providers check at least once every calendar day whether a customer is subject to targeted financial restrictive measures of the EU.

SEPA Instant is the scheme, and TIPS is one system that settles its payments. TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) is the platform of the Eurosystem, launched in November 2018. It settles instant payments in central bank money around the clock, and it processes a transaction in under 100 milliseconds (ECB, TIPS). TIPS settles in euro, Swedish krona and Danish krone, and participating credit institutions use it to settle instant payments throughout Europe. Since 2022, providers in the SCT Inst scheme that are reachable in T2 must be reachable in TIPS.

Instant payments and real time payments name the same kind of transfer. EU law and the ECB say instant payments. SIX writes that its Swiss system SIC processes payments in real time.

In Germany and Austria the SEPA Regulation applies directly, with the dates of the euro area. BaFin writes that all credit institutions in Germany have had to verify the payee of a transfer since October 9, 2025, for instant and for conventional transfers in euro (BaFin, verification of payee). The Deutsche Bundesbank, whose Central Office is in Frankfurt am Main, writes that the ECB Governing Council approved TIPS in June 2017 and that TIPS has been operating since November 2018 (Bundesbank, TIPS). In Austria, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank publishes the same dates for banks and payment service providers.

Switzerland is outside the EU, so Regulation (EU) 2024/886 does not apply there. Instant payments in Swiss francs run through Swiss Interbank Clearing (SIC), which SIX Interbank Clearing operates on behalf of the Swiss National Bank. Bank customers in Switzerland have been able to make instant payments since August 2024 (SNB, April 10, 2025). SIX states that such a payment reaches the other account within 10 seconds. This page gives no legal advice.