The EU Commission wants real-time transfers to become the standard in Europe. The Brussels authority presented a legislative proposal on Wednesday that is intended to remove hurdles to paying in seconds.

Among other things, real-time payments in euros should not be more expensive for bank customers than standard transfers, which are usually free. In addition, all credit institutions should be obliged to offer fast transfers at any time. Normal transfers usually take one working day, while real-time payments only take up to ten seconds.

So-called instant payments have been technically possible in Europe since 2017. According to the EU Commission, however, at the beginning of 2022 only eleven percent of the transfers were carried out as real-time payments. Around a third of the banks do not even offer this option. The EU states and the European Parliament must now negotiate the proposal by the EU Commission.