Transferring money in ten seconds at any time of the day, not only within the same country, but also to another member state of the European Union, will soon be a reality for all bank customers.
It’s done. The European Union adopted a regulation on Monday which will require banks from next year to offer an instant payment offer in all countries in the euro zone and at the same price as a traditional transfer. The text validated by the Council of the EU, bringing together the 27 member states, received the approval of the European Parliament on February 7.
The Instant Payments Regulation will make it possible to transfer money in ten seconds at any time of the day, including outside office hours, not only within the same country, but also to another Member State of the EU, specifies the Council of the European Union in a press release.
Free transfers soon
The fees applied, where applicable, must not be higher than those for standard transfers. As a result, the instant transfer which is often charged in France will soon be free. In fact, traditional transfers, which require a delay of a day or two, are already generally offered free of charge.
Instant transfer: price and operation in your bank
To date, instant transfer is free at La Banque Postale, at Crdit Mutuel Arka, in some regional banks of Crédit Agricole, for small amounts in certain Caisses d’Epargne and in most online banks. But in large banks, the rule is to charge customers for this service, with a cost starting at 50 cents per transfer for transfers of small amounts.
Some banks have a trick to make you pay the cost of the instant transfer even more: billing in increments of amount. The higher the amount transferred, the higher the cost of instantaneity!
Instant transfer: the banks’ trick to increase prices
Free transfers from the end of 2024 in France?
Furthermore, instant transfer services are often unavailable for cross-border payments, which slows down their adoption. An obstacle which will soon be removed thanks to the adopted text.
Concretely, banks in the euro zone which already provide an instant transfer service, i.e. the majority of French banks, will have 9 months from the publication of the text in Official Journal of the European Union to make them free. With the text expected to come into force by April, these banks will have to comply with the free tax by the end of 2024, or even the beginning of 2025.
For other banks in the euro zone which have not yet adopted instant transfers, they will have 9 months from the entry into force of the text to allow their customers to receive such transfers, and 18 months to allow them to put some for free, i.e. before fall 2025.
On the other hand, in countries that have not adopted the single currency, banks will benefit from a period until 2027, and even 2028 for payments from an account denominated in their national currency.