Overview

• From 9 October, Regulation EU 2024/886 requires all EU banks and payment providers to enable instant transfers and run verification-of-payee checks on both instant and ordinary transfers.
• The services must be available online, in branches, and at ATMs, and the obligations extend to EU countries outside the euro area.
• The name-to-IBAN check will return an exact match, a partial match, or a non-verifiable result, after which the payer can decide whether to proceed.
• The Italian banking association warns early results may frequently be partial or non-verifiable as systems ramp up, so match accuracy is expected to improve over time.
• Instant transfers are effectively irreversible, the single-payment cap is €100,000, surcharges above ordinary fees are banned, and consumer groups cite higher fraud incidence than for standard transfers.