On Monday 26 February, the Council of the European Union adopted a new regulation aimed at harmonising the use of instant transfers in euros and the ‘IBAN’ bank code within the EU and the European Economic Area. The European Parliament voted in favour of this regulation on 7 February with 599 votes in favour (see EUROPE 13345/8).
Once signed by the Presidents of the European Parliament and the EU Council, the regulation will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and will enter into force 20 days after its publication. Member States will then have a maximum of 12 months to comply with the legislative provisions of the EU regulation.
Payment service providers in the euro area will have a maximum of 9 months to allow their customers to receive instant transfers and a maximum of 18 months to allow them to send them. Providers located outside the euro area will have a maximum of 33 and 39 months respectively. Electronic operators, such as PayPal, will have to apply the same provisions in the euro area within 36 months of the text coming into force.
These different application deadlines were the subject of a compromise in November 2023 between the EU Council and the European Parliament. The latter argued for faster deadlines (see EUROPE 13288/15).
The adoption of this new regulation is part of the completion of the capital markets union (CMU). Launched in 2015 by the European Commission, the CMU is designed to boost competitiveness within the EU. The 27 European finance ministers recently reiterated the “urgent need for action” on this issue (see EUROPE 13357/8). (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)