European Parliament authorises new regulations for instant money transfers
The European Parliament has 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.
European regulators set new rules for instant payments
The updated regulations, which will come into effect 20 days after their publication in the EU Official Journal, are aimed at improving the speed and safety of financial transfers, with particular importance placed on ensuring SMEs don’t have to wait for their money.
The newly agreed guidelines revise the current single Euro payments area (SEPA) protocols.
Banks and other payment service providers (PSPs) will now be responsible for the immediate processing of credit transfers. Regardless of the time of day, PSPs must ensure that when transferring funds the recipient receives the money into their account within ten seconds.
Moreover, the payer must be informed, within the same timeframe, whether or not the money has been successfully transferred to the recipient. These regulations will be enforced across all member states.
The European Parliament adds: “Member states whose currency is not the euro will also have to apply the rules, where the accounts already offer regular transactions in euro, after a longer transition period.
“There will be a special derogation from making the payment within ten seconds for such accounts outside business hours, given possible concerns about access to liquidity in euro.”
MEP Michiel Hoogeveen claims that the “Instant Payments Regulation marks the long-awaited modernisation of payments in the European single market”.
“Customers can now say goodbye to the inconvenience of waiting two or three working days to access their money.”
In addition, MEPs have announced that PSPs, “without any additional charges or fees”, must implement a set of ID verification and fraud detection solutions to avoid transfers going into incorrect accounts due to error or fraud.
These new regulations come hot on the heels of the European Commission clamping down on VAT-based fraud, where it has enforced a ruling that, as of 1 January of this year, PSPs across all member states are to monitor payees of cross-border payments.
