The EU Instant Payments Regulation will bring about improvements to the security and speed of inter-bank transfers in 2025. Checking the payee with further improve security. SEPA instant credit transfer will enable transfers between accounts in real time.
Better payment security
A new feature will be introduced in October for SEPA credit transfer to improve security: payee checking. This will enable you to make sure that your payment will be going to the correct payee.
When you're creating a payment in our digital services, the system will check whether the payee details you have given (payee's name and account number) match those in the payee bank. You will be notified if the information matches – or if there is a discrepancy. This will enable you to make an informed choice on whether to go ahead with the payment or to interrupt.
The purpose of this check is to prevent payments from ending up on the wrong account due to an incorrect account number or fraud attempt.
Instant credit transfer works in seconds
Instant credit transfer works in 10 seconds, around the clock and in all euro area banks. Once instant credit transfer has been carried out, the money appears on the immediately on the payee's account. As is the case currently with SEPA credit transfer, instant credit transfer cannot be cancelled or returned. OP has been transferring payments through digital services as instant credit transfer since 2018, and in future even more so.
Instant credit transfer between banks within Finland do not have a euro-based upper limit. Banks from other countries also already belong to the Closed User Group that doesn’t apply an upper limit. The upper limit within the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is currently EUR 100,000, but this will be lifted during 2025 in the euro area.