Daily Times

The EU on Wednesday said it wants banks to offer “instant payments” in euros for people and businesses, and get away from current practices where money can be held up for days. The European Commission said the aim is to radically cut the time that payments are made via banks to seconds, and make the transfers more affordable at a time families in Europe are struggling with the rising cost of living and soaring energy prices. “Perhaps this should have happened organically, but it didn’t, and so we’re taking this step today to make it happen,” the EU commissioner for financial services Mairead McGuinness said. Currently, only one in 10 euro transfers crediting accounts are instant, with traditional ones taking up to three days to be completed. And some of the banks that do offer an instant transfer option levy a cost of as much as 30 euros ($30). McGuinness said there was “no reason” why the ability to send and receive money immediately was not more widespread, given that “the technology to provide for instant payments has been in place since 2017”. Under the proposed rule change, banks would not be allowed to ask customers to pay more for instant transfers than they do for traditional payments. The proposals are to be put to EU members and the European Parliament before any final version is implemented and, once finalised, eurozone banks would have six months to prepare. The European Consumer Organisation, which lobbies for consumers’ interests, hailed the proposal, saying it would make payment options “safer, more affordable and convenient”. A lobby group for banks, the European Savings and Retail Banking Group, said it, too, welcomed the initiative, especially as it contained efforts to streamline procedures banks need to undertake to ensure transfers were not subject to sanctions.