Instant Payments are electronic payments by consumers that are carried out instantaneously (on average, within five seconds) and where the transferred funds become instantly available on the recipient’s bank account. Instant payments are processed in real-time and can be made by consumers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year via mobile, PC but also in a bank branch.

This is compared to traditional bank transfers, which can take up to three full days to process. But this model is becoming outdated and consumers expect their payments to be made instantaneously. Instant Payments could offer significant benefits to consumers, but are currently not widely available to all in the EU due to a lack of adoption by banks and to barriers preventing their up-take.