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EU Instant Payments Regulation: the deadlines for banks in Central and Eastern Europe

Techtone Group · Sep 14, 2026 · Last reviewed Oct 14, 2026

Banks in non-euro EU countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania must be able to receive instant euro credit transfers by January 9, 2027, and to send them, with verification of payee, by July 9, 2027. Banks in the euro area have been bound since 2025.

What the regulation requires

Regulation (EU) 2024/886, published on March 19, 2024 and in force since April 8, 2024, amends the SEPA Regulation. Wherever a payment service provider offers ordinary euro credit transfers, it must also offer instant euro credit transfers, with four conditions attached:

• Around the clock, within 10 seconds. The funds must reach the payee within ten seconds, every day of the year.
• No price premium. An instant transfer may not cost more than a standard credit transfer of the same kind.
• Verification of payee, free of charge. Before the payer authorises a transfer, the bank checks that the payee name matches the account number and tells the payer whether it matches, almost matches or does not match. This applies to standard and instant transfers alike.
• Sanctions screening of customers, not of each payment. Providers must check their own customers against EU sanctions lists at least daily and immediately when new measures take effect, instead of screening every individual transfer.

The deadlines

Which countries in the region fall where

• Euro area: Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia, the Baltic states and, since January 1, 2026, Bulgaria. Banks here are already bound by the 2025 dates; Bulgarian banks should confirm their transition with the Bulgarian National Bank.
• Non-euro area: Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. The 2027 dates apply to their euro payment services. Several of these markets already run domestic instant payment systems in their own currency, which helps with operations but does not cover the euro obligations by itself.

Where the work really is

• Verification of payee needs a name-matching service, rules for near matches, and clear wording in every channel, including corporate bulk payments, where clients may opt out.
• Sanctions screening changes from transaction filters to a daily customer screening process, which has to be documented and evidenced for the supervisor.
• Liquidity and operations must work at weekends and at night: settlement accounts, intraday liquidity, incident response and customer support.
• Pricing has to be aligned before the parity date, which can reduce fee income from priority transfers.
• Fraud controls must decide in seconds, because an instant transfer cannot be recalled once it has been sent.

What changes for corporate clients

Businesses feel the regulation in three places. Supplier payments and refunds can settle in seconds at any hour, which changes how treasury teams manage end-of-day cash positions. Verification of payee adds a check on every new beneficiary, which reduces misdirected payments and invoice fraud but needs clean master data: a supplier registered under a trading name rather than its legal name will show as a near match or a mismatch. And bulk payment files can opt out of the check, so banks need a clear agreement with each corporate client on how that choice is made and documented.

Five questions for the steering committee

• Which of our channels, including corporate host-to-host and bulk files, offer euro credit transfers today, and are all of them in scope?
• Do we build verification of payee ourselves or buy it, and how do we reach every bank we must answer queries from?
• What is the revenue effect of pricing parity, and has it been reflected in the budget for 2027?
• Can our fraud models and our sanctions process work without transaction screening and within seconds?
• Who is on call at 3 a.m. on a Sunday when an instant payment fails?

A planning view for non-euro banks

With the January 2027 receiving date less than four months away, receiving should already be in testing. Sending and verification of payee, due in July 2027, typically take six to nine months of build and test, so projects not started by the end of 2026 are at risk. Banks that also offer euro accounts to retail customers should plan the 2028 national currency step at the same time rather than as a third project.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Supervisors may publish national guidance; confirm requirements with your competent authority.

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