Verify SEPA Instant Credit Transfer reachability compliance under the EU Instant Payments Regulation before relying on a PSP for euro instant payments

Verified steps

1. Confirm your PSP or sponsor bank has been able to receive SEPA Instant Credit Transfers since the EU Instant Payments Regulation's first reachability deadline of January 9, 2025 for euro-area payment service providers.
2. Confirm the same PSP has been able to send SEPA Instant Credit Transfers since the regulation's second deadline of October 9, 2025, and that it offers Verification of Payee (recipient name-to-IBAN matching), free of charge, also required from October 9, 2025.
3. If your provider is a non-bank e-money institution or payment institution rather than a bank, check its specific timeline — the regulation extends full send/receive obligations for EMIs/PIs to 2027, while the Verification of Payee requirement already applies to them from October 9, 2025.
4. Check that instant transfers settle within seconds, 24/7/365 including weekends and holidays, and that your provider isn't charging more for an instant transfer than for an equivalent standard (non-instant) SEPA credit transfer — both are mandated by the regulation.
5. If you route payments through a euro-area correspondent while operating outside the euro area, confirm which leg of the payment flow the reachability mandate actually covers, since the regulation binds PSPs located in the euro area rather than the currency of the underlying transfer alone.