(28 November 2017 – Europe) UniCredit has launched its cross-border instant payments solution in Italy and Germany, after the European Instant Credit Transfer scheme became active.
The bank conducted its inaugural instant payment from Germany to Italy. The payment took exactly 2.5 seconds to be completed. This makes UniCredit the first bank to offer real-time payments in Germany and the first to use the format for a cross-border payment.
The bank’s roll-out of instant payments is in line with the European Payments Council’s (EPC) SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme, as originally initiated by the European Central Bank. Instant payments allow clients to conduct payments within only a few seconds. As set by the EPC, there is a limit of €15,000 per transaction.
After one week of live operation in the European instant payments infrastructure, outbound payment execution will be available in Germany starting from 27 November 2017. Outbound payment execution in Italy will follow on 22 February 2018.