The second phase of the European payments revolution begins. Obligation for all banks, real-time IBAN-beneficiary verification and personalized limits. Benefits and risks for citizens
Here we are, instant bank transfer really enters everyone’s daily life: as fast as a click, but to be used with your head. From 9 October the second phase of the European regulation comes into force and the new rules come into force. After the obligation to receive without surcharge introduced last January, all European banks will now have to allow their customers to send instant transfers and will have to verify in real time the correspondence between the name of the beneficiary and the IBAN.
What changes from October 9th for instant transfers: verified IBANs and personalized limits
With the European regulation (EU 2024/886) which now fully comes into force, the instant bank transfer becomes mandatory for all banks and financial institutions of the European Union and the European Economic Area. Therefore, it will no longer be an “extra” service, but todayn European current account must be able to send and receive an instant transfer, in 10 seconds, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Shoot, the real news, the Verification of Payee (VoP)the mandatory verification system that allows you to check in real time, before confirming a payment, that the recipient’s name coincides with the IBAN entered.
In practice it will happen like this: when you make a transfer, the bank will compare the data and immediately show a message: exact match, partial match, mismatch or impossibility of verification (for example, if the account is closed). All free and automatically. At that point it will be up to the person making the transfer to proceed or cancel the operation, thus avoiding transfers to wrong or fraudulent accounts.
The other news concerns personalized limits. Each bank will establish a maximum amount limit for instant transfers, based on the spending habits and financial flows of the individual account holder. Nothing definitive, the limits may vary over time, based on the user’s behavior and his risk profile, and must be communicated transparently to customers.
The benefits and risks of instant transfers
The universal introduction of instant transfers has clear advantages. First of all, the speed: the money transfer is immediate and definitive, a turning point for those who need to pay an urgent invoice or receive an instant payment. Furthermore, with the prohibition of applying higher commissions than traditional bank transfers, the service becomes more accessible. But speed has a price: once executed, the instant transfer cannot be canceled. In the event of an error or fraud, the bank is no longer responsible after confirmation of the transaction, and the only remedy is to ask for a refund, which the beneficiary can refuse. So from October 9th
user attention becomes crucial. The data from the Bank of Italy speak clearly: although digital fraud remains low (less than 1% of transactions), the share relating to instant transfers is almost forty times higher than that of ordinary transfers (0.057% versus 0.0015%).
