Filenews 30 December 2024
As of 9 January 2025, Cyprus is taking an important step towards modernising banking transactions by introducing instant payments.
Bank customers will be able to make interbank and transnational transactions within 10 seconds, regardless of day and time, making payments faster and more flexible.
Instant payments will apply to all countries in the SEPA zone, which includes the 27 EU Member States and nine other countries, such as the United Kingdom. This new process will dramatically reduce payment processing time, which currently ranges from one to two days.
Banks are called upon to upgrade their systems to provide more safeguards. Among them, from October 2025, the provision for "Verification of Payee" will be activated, which will ensure that the account details correspond to the correct beneficiary, before completing a payment.
An important provision of the Regulation foresees that banks will not charge their customers higher charges for direct payments than for existing banking transactions. In addition, the creation of a common platform for instant mobile payments, using only the payee's phone number or email address, is envisaged.
The era of instant payments begins
With the implementation of the new regulation, transactions become faster, more secure and accessible, offering significant flexibility to citizens and businesses. Cyprus, along with the rest of the SEPA countries, is entering a new era in bank payments, improving economic activity and day-to-day transactions.
