Rules change, starting Wednesday, January 9, for instant transfers that will have the same price as ordinary ones. And it will be mandatory for all banks to receive them.
The new European rules in fact revise the directive on payments in order to make it easier for consumers and businesses to access a tool that until now has been burdened by an additional cost (sometimes a fixed sum, other times a fixed sum plus a percentage with an outlay that can reach over 2 euros) and not always widespread. The EU rules also foresee a further step on 9 October 2025: the obligation for banks not only to receive instant transfers, but also to offer the service to their customers to allow for further expansion.
Furthermore, there will be a verification requirement (i.e. the correspondence between IBAN and the name of the beneficiary) in order to increase trust in the instrument which is seen as a further step towards a single European payments market. An immediate transfer can in fact be arranged at any time of the day or night and 365 days a year, whereas an ordinary one is limited to a few hours on weekdays. In this way, it can be used for purchases in a shop and allows companies to have money immediately available. In the future, instant transfers will be able to replace portions of cash and checks and compete with payment cards.
The spread of 'plastic money' or in any case the use of digital transactions, whether via bank transfers or via apps or other tools, is constantly growing, although at a lower rate than in the past. Furthermore, according to the latest ECB survey, when you go to pay in a shop, at a bar, in a garage or at a supermarket in the eurozone, you now use a card or an app almost one time out of two (48%). A share that drops to 38% in Italy where, however, in the last two years cash has lost several positions (-9%). And yet banknotes and coins have not completely lost their role.
The majority of people interviewed by the central institute's report (62%) still consider it important to have cash as a payment option. In any case, after the resistance of recent years, retail trade and professional services have largely adopted digital payments (also thanks to a significant drop in commissions). Banks, on the other hand, must face increasingly fierce competition from new operators, often online only, which offer low-cost services and are making inroads especially among the youngest.
