During this year The European Parliament approved new rules regarding bank transfers. These standards ensure that instantly and in euros. Until now, bank transfers have depended on the calendar or fees imposed by the banks. A transfer usually takes between 24 and 48 hours to become effective on business days, if there is a holiday or weekend in between it can take several days. This is why the European Parliament decided to implement changes in this area.
The new regulations
This new regulation characterized by security and immediacy allows the money to reach the recipient’s account within a maximum period of 10 seconds. This measure can benefit both individuals and large companies, but parliament assures that it will benefit companies above all. SMEsby reducing waits of several business days for the availability of funds. It was approved with 599 votes in favor7 against and 35 abstentions.
“The immediacy of transfers must be guaranteed regardless of the day or time; The money must reach the recipient’s account within 10 seconds“points out the European Parliament in a statement distributed to inform about the new regulations.
To ensure security, payment providers will need to apply Robust and up-to-date fraud detection and prevention measuresin order to prevent the transferred money from ending up in the wrong account by mistake or fraud. This is why these suppliers that operate in the European Union must offer, at no additional cost, a recipient identity verification service. As an additional safeguard against fraud, institutions should allow customers to set a maximum amount for instant transfers in euros, which could be easily modified before a new transfer is executed.
Regarding the cost, as pointed out in the same statement from the European Parliament ““The charges applied for immediate transfers in euros may not be higher than those applied to conventional transfer operations in euros.”.
When will it come into force in Spain
The new European regulations on instant transfers came into force 20 days after their publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. However, the European transposition into Spanish legislation, prior publication in the Official State Gazette (BOE), grants banking entities a period to implement and launch these measuresin order to “adapt their systems and offer this service free of charge to all their clients.” Since its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, banks have a period of 18 months to implement changesfrom what they say until October 9, 2025.
In this way, Spanish banks have until 2025 to comply with European regulations on immediate transfers. Otherwise, the banking entity that does not comply with the requirements in Regulation 2024/886 of the European Parliamentavailable in the Official State Gazette, may be sanctioned.
The application of this regulation is based on two fundamental pillars: the service offering and the cost. What the document explains is the obligation of banks to establish a cost equal to or lower than that established for bank transfers. Starting next year, that is, from 2025, it will be known if banks choose to modify their rates for ordinary operations in order to minimize losses or if they decide to maintain their current prices, since today there are some banks that offer standard transfers of free of charge.