It is worth noting that on February 26, 2024, the European Council went ahead and adopted a new regulation, the Instant Payments Regulation. This is going to make instant payments in euros completely available to the consumers as well as businesses across EU as well as in EEA countries.
The fact is that the clock is already ticking. The EU has set an ambitious, and some would argue an overly ambitious as well as unrealistic, target date to go ahead and be compliant.
The regulations are going to come into effect in just three weeks. The objective of the regulations happens to be clearly understood. That is, to elevate the strategic independence of the European economic and also the financial sectors. It also looks to lessen the reliance on financial institutions as well as infrastructure of third countries, also specifically Visa and Mastercard. The EU goes on to argue that overdependence on such entities can create risks to the stability along with the sovereignty of the European financial system. By way of promoting Euro Instant Payments, the EU looks to diminish this kind of dependence. In turn, it makes its own financial autonomy more robust.
Unprecedented in terms of scale as well as speed, this is a colossal challenge
The Global Head of Real-Time Payments at ACI Worldwide, Craig Ramsey, opined that with the official publication in the European Journal, the EU has already gone on to confirm the new Instant Payments Regulation is going to come into effect on April 8.
From this date, banks as well as payment service providers throughout the EU’s 27 member states will have only nine months to comply. This means being able to receive instant credit transfers in euros by January 9, 2025.
Notably, never has a piece of payment regulation become so ambitious in terms of scale as well as speed. Financial institutions throughout the EU will have to work pretty fast. This pace of change is indeed unheard of and will go on to present a massive challenge for the industry. The whole sector is required to make this a singular priority.
