What is the Instant Payments Regulation?
The Instant Payments Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/886), adopted in April 2024, is a legislative amendment to the SEPA Regulation aimed at accelerating the adoption of instant euro credit transfers across the EU. Under this regulation, all Payment Service Providers (PSPs) must enable their customers to send and receive euro payments within 10 seconds, 24/7/365.
A key goal of the regulation is to ensure that instant payments are offered at no higher cost than standard credit transfers. To monitor implementation, the European Commission (EC) has mandated the European Banking Authority (EBA) to introduce harmonized reporting requirements.
Objectives of the Instant Payments Regulation (IPR)
The regulation is built around three core objectives:
- Ubiquity: Ensure instant credit transfers are widely offered across the EU banking and payments sector
- Affordability: Guarantee that PSPs do not impose additional fees for instant transfers versus traditional SEPA credit transfers
- Transparency and oversight: Provide national and EU-level authorities with data to assess adoption, usage, and obstacles
What are the key reporting requirements of the Instant Payments Regulations?
To support these objectives, the EBA has published a standardized reporting framework. PSPs must submit annual reports to their National Competent Authorities (NCAs) in a structured XBRL.csv format, adhering to EBA-defined templates and validation rules. Reported data includes:
- Number and value of credit transfers vs. instant credit transfers
- Charges applied for both types of transfers
- Number of rejected instant credit transfers, particularly due to sanctions screening
Reporting timeline:
- First reporting deadline: 9 April 2026, covering payment activity from 22 October 2022 to 31 December 2025
- Ongoing reporting: Annual basis, with 2026 activity due by 9 April 2027 EBA has emphasized strict adherence to its reporting taxonomy and template definitions, and NCAs are expected to fully align with the common format without deviation.
Who is impacted by the Instant Payments Regulation in the European Economic Area?
The regulation applies to all European Economic Area (EEA)-based PSPs:
- Credit institutions, including their local and foreign branches
- Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs)
- Payment Institutions (PIs)
Banks need to be aware that reporting is conducted at the individual legal entity level, and not on a consolidated basis.
What challenges do banks face with IPR reporting?
As the reporting deadline approaches, banks must overcome several operational and technical hurdles:
Generating XBRL.csv outputs
Many institutions lack native tools for structured XBRL.csv generation
Short timelines
With the first report due in April 2026, internal readiness efforts must begin now
Adapting existing infrastructure
Most current systems are not designed to capture or classify instant payments data at the required level of granularity
Frequent EBA updates
Regulatory templates, taxonomies, and validation rules are updated regularly, tracking and implementing these changes consumes time and resources
Cost efficiency
Institutions are under pressure to comply without inflating their regulatory reporting budgets