Swiss National Bank announces launch of instant payments in Switzerland
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has announced the market launch of instant payments in Switzerland.
The SNB says around 60 Swiss FIs can now receive and process instant payments
The introduction of instant payments has been enabled by a technical framework established in November 2023 in partnership with SIX Interbank Clearing.
Around 60 Swiss financial institutions can now receive and process instant payments, encompassing more than 95% of Swiss retail payment transactions.
The SNB says that some institutions have “already launched retail offerings enabling customers to send instant payments”, with more banks expected to announce similar services “in the coming months”.
The central bank predicts that “all financial institutions active in retail payment transactions will be reachable” by the end of 2026 “at the latest”.
According to a recent SNB survey, Switzerland remains closely tied to physical cash. Consequently, the central bank views this market launch as a significant milestone and a reflection of the “collective stakeholder commitment to the future of cashless payments in Switzerland”.
Instant payments have been available in the EU since 2017 for immediate account-to-account transactions. Earlier this year, the European Central Bank adopted a fresh set of regulations in a push to guarantee that euro money transfers arrive in bank accounts “within ten seconds” throughout the EU.
As a result, the adoption of instant payment services has been a priority for European financial institutions this year. Notably, Ireland’s Payac partnered with Italian paytech Nexi for SEPA instant payments services last month, and Banque Raiffeisen, Luxembourg’s only cooperative bank, selected France’s Worldline for instant payments processing in May.
