EC Policy Officer Kobylińska-Hilliard: On 26 October the European Commission (EC) adopted a legislative proposal on instant payments in euro, fulfilling its commitment of the 2020 Retail Payments Strategy for the European Union.
This proposal essentially takes the form of an amendment to the 2012 ‘ Regulation’, which already contains general provisions for all
credit transfers in euro, adding specific provisions for instant credit
transfers in euro. The adoption was preceded by an extensive, three-year
long preparatory analytical, legal and consultative work, comprising a
large number of consultation exercises with a wide spectrum of
stakeholders.
The European Payments Council provided the foundation for instant payments in euro by launching the Instant Credit Transfer () scheme at the end of 2017. Unfortunately, the Commission believes that four and a half years later, the uptake of , measured as a share in all Credit Transfer () and together, did not take off as much as expected. With an average uptake of around thirteen percent in October 2022, the lags significantly behind other major international markets
(India, Brazil, United Kingdom (UK), Australia). This figure conceals a
large variation in uptake across Member States.
While, in some Member States, instant payments in euro have become a
true ‘new normal’ way of transferring funds and their uptake hovers
around seventy percent in other Member States (from both inside and
outside the euro zone) instant payments in euro are still in their
nascence with the uptake failing to break through the one percent mark.
To unlock the full-scale network benefits of instant payments for consumers, businesses and public authorities, the European Commission opted for a legislative route.
European Payments Council
© EPC
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