“I feel the need. The need, for speed”

Or at least payments across the Eurozone will soon need to…

Regulators have channeled their inner “Maverick”, giving banks the hurry up and from 9th October 2025 all banks in the Eurozone will be required to support SEPA Instant payments. Below, we unpack what this means for Pay by Bank.

What is Pay By Bank?

Pay by Bank is a payment method that lets customers pay for things directly from their bank account via their bank app.

It works because fintechs, like TrueLayer, can connect to consumer bank accounts and make payments, with the consumer’s permission, directly from those accounts to merchants.

What is SEPA Instant and why is it relevant to Pay by Bank?

SEPA Instant is the official, pan-European payment scheme that enables near-real-time transfer of euros across the entire Single Euro Payments Area. In short, it is the fastest payment rail available in Europe for sending and receiving money between bank accounts.

As an account to account payment method, Pay by Bank is reliant on payment rails to ensure payments flow from payer to payee. The speed of the payment is determined by the availability of the payment rail to both the sending and receiving banks.

Haven’t payments always been quick?

Sometimes yes, but often no! While SEPA Instant has been around since 2017, banks could choose whether or not to offer the payment rail to their customers. As a result, lots of payments continued to be processed as SEPA Credit Transfers, sometimes taking hours (or even days!) for a payment to actually reach its intended destination.

Slow payments means slow transactions, with goods not being shipped and services not being available until the transaction is completed.

So, what is changing?

The Instant Payment Regulation requires that from 9th October 2025 all Eurozone banks that offer SEPA Credit Transfers must also offer SEPA Instant at no additional cost.

That's payment settlement within 10 seconds of initiation. 24/7/365. With no additional costs for merchants or consumers.

What about non-Eurozone banks?

Not all banks that process Euro transactions are located in a Member State that accepts Euro (think Poland, Switzerland etc…). Banks in these countries have a little longer to adapt, with an equivalent requirement to offer SEPA Instant by 9th July 2027.

What does it all mean for TrueLayer?

TrueLayer offers the ability to receive consumer initiated payments into a merchant’s account (a ‘pay-in’) and also to send payments out from that merchant account to a consumer e.g. when processing a refund or distributing winnings (a ‘payout).

While we have been able to offer instant payouts since 9th January 2025, we can now offer a fully instant pay-in solution right across the Eurozone. Both pay-ins and payouts will now settle in seconds.

If you are an existing merchant and you only enable pay-ins for banks that enable SEPA Instant, the list of available banks will increase significantly and you will be able to offer Pay by Bank to more of your customers.

The most significant coverage changes can be seen in the below countries:

• 🇮🇪 Ireland: From 26% to 97%

• 🇫🇮 Finland: From 50% to 100%

• 🇪🇸 Spain: From 60% to 80%

• 🇮🇹 Italy: From 50% to 80%

• 🇩🇪 Germany: From 92% to 95%

• 🇫🇷 France: From 94% to 95%

• 🇧🇪 Belgium: From 84% to 88%

What's next?

The Instant Payment Regulation is just one of several EU initiatives that have the potential to level up Pay by Bank. The new Payment Services Regulation package is being finalised with a publication likely early 2026. Watch this space for smoother payment journeys, more payment choice and ultimately more competition in the payments world.