Overview
- From 9 October 2025, banks and payment providers must run a Verification of Payee check that compares the beneficiary’s name with the IBAN and issues real-time match or mismatch alerts.
- Customers may still proceed after a warning, but responsibility shifts to the payer if details do not align, and banks can be exonerated for resulting errors.
- Instant transfers must be available to all account holders across the same channels as standard transfers, with execution in under ten seconds at all hours and support for scheduled instant payments.
- The maximum amount for instant transfers will rise to as much as €100,000, according to industry reports summarizing the EU rule package.
- Italy’s central bank reports €65.5 million in fraudulent transfers in H2 2024—about 25,600 cases—bolstering the case for the new requirements, while SEPA rules still make credited instant payments effectively irreversible.