Filenews 7 October 2025 - by Theano Thiopoulou
Two changes are coming to bank money transfers in October, as customers of all banks will make instant payments within seconds, at a cost equivalent to a simple transfer, but also with much greater security.
As of 9 October 2025, all domestic banking institutions are obliged to make payments (remittances) in a few seconds, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in all EU Member States, implementing the Instant Payments Regulation (IPR), adopted by EU Member States on 9 April 2024.
The aim is to institutionalize an initiative introduced by the European Payments Council, also known as SEPA Instant Credit Transfers (ICT), which aims to ensure that retail bank customers and businesses, especially small and medium-sized ones, do not have to wait for their money to be deposited into their account, while enhancing the security of bank payments.
Some provisions of the regulation, such as the obligation to receive direct payments from banks, have already been implemented since January 9, 2025, while some other provisions (such as the obligation to send ICT), are expected to be implemented by October 9, 2025.
According to the regulation, all ICT instant payments (inside and outside Cyprus) should be processed and transferred from the payer's account to the payee's account within 10 seconds, at any time, and from any bank within the SEPA zone.
The regulation does not provide for a cap on instant payments and leaves it up to the processing agencies (including banks) to set their own limits per transaction. The regulation sets out rules, requirements and procedures for the uptake of instant payments in an efficient way for the benefit of all parties involved, i.e. banks, businesses, consumers and the government.
Another key element for the security of banking transactions is the activation of a beneficiary check (IBAN). In October, the new Verification of Payee (VoP) service will be implemented by all banks operating in Cyprus and the SEPA zone. The VoP service is part of the European strategy for the integration and security of payments within Europe, requiring payment service providers (PSPs) to provide their customers with mechanisms to verify the match between their name (i.e. the recipient of a payment) and the IBAN number that corresponds to them, before executing a money transfer. In this way, citizens and businesses will be able to know with greater certainty that the remittance they are sending is actually directed to the beneficiary they want.
