HUB announces changes: SEPA instant payments available to everyone from 2025

The Croatian Banking Association (HUB) reported on Wednesday about significant changes in Croatia’s payment system that will come into effect during 2025, concerning the introduction of SEPA instant payments.

– The introduction of SEPA instant payments represents an important step in the modernization and digitalization of Croatia’s financial system. This payment service allows users to execute payment transactions faster, more securely, and more conveniently – HUB stated.

In 2024, alongside the Payment Transactions Act, a European regulation on instant credit transfers in euros was adopted, which will come into effect in two phases during 2025 and mandates the introduction of SEPA instant credit transfers (instant payments), enabling fund transfers within seconds, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

According to the latest regulatory requirements, all payment service providers will be required to enable the receipt of national and cross-border SEPA instant payments from January 9, and the sending of national and cross-border SEPA instant payments from October 9 of this year, HUB emphasized.

In accordance with the regulation, fees for SEPA instant payments will be equal to the fees for standard payments.

HUB noted that a large number of banks in Croatia have already offered the service of receiving and sending national and cross-border SEPA instant payments, allowing users to execute payments quickly and securely.

They reminded that standard SEPA credit transfers in Croatia are currently executed according to the schedule of the payment system of the Financial Agency (EuroNKS), while orders initiated outside working hours, during weekends or holidays, are executed the next working day.

With the introduction of SEPA instant payments, HUB stated, significant emphasis has also been placed on system security, as the regulation introduces an obligation for banks offering such a service to conduct more intensive checks of their client base against sanctions lists at least once a day, every day of the year, in accordance with obligations arising from the Restrictive Measures Act. Due to such checks, there is a possibility of temporarily denying services for sending/receiving instant payment orders to clients who will use this service. Since this is EU regulation, the checks that banks will conduct in Croatia are identical to those that other banks in EU member states will conduct, they added.

For additional information about the benefits and how to use this service, clients can contact their bank, HUB noted.