Lagos — The Instant Payments Regulation (IPR) mandating availability of immediate payments for euro-denominated credit transfers is a watershed moment for Europe’s payments market, moving instant transfers from a niche offering to a mainstream expectation. Against this backdrop, SEPA Instant Payments (SCT Inst) are set to account for 18% of all euro payments by 2035, driven by regulation, rising adoption, and growing confidence across banks and payment institutions, forecasts Celent, a GlobalData company.
Celent’s latest report, “SCT Inst Adoption in Europe: Build It and They Will Come,” explores how various players—banks, electronic money institutions (EMIs), and payment institutions (PIs)—are getting ready to capitalise on the SCT Inst opportunity, including market readiness and compliance, attitudes to SCT Inst, and the expectations on resulting SCT Inst volumes.
To capture the industry’s sentiments directly, Celent surveyed over 100 financial institutions operating across 10 European markets. In addition, Celent developed a model forecasting SCT Inst volumes, based on its understanding of market developments and drivers, proprietary payment volume data available at GlobalData and other sources, as well as the survey inputs.
The research study that underpins the findings discussed in the report was commissioned by ClearBank, but the report was written independently by Celent.
Selected research findings include:
– Banks are firmly on track to comply with the different SCT Inst mandates. All 60 (100%) bank respondents stated that they were already fully compliant with January 2025 requirements and over half (55%) are already compliant with July 2027 mandates. In contrast, 20% of EMIs and PIs expect to miss the 2027 deadline by 3-6 months.
– The industry’s attitudes to SCT Inst are overwhelmingly positive. The survey respondents believe that SCT Inst will have a positive impact on the industry overall (73% agreeing), benefitting their customers (69%) and their institutions (65%).
– SCT Inst is poised to capture a growing share of a growing payments pie and by 2035 will become the second most used non-cash payment type, representing 18% of all payments.
Zil Bareisis, Director of Banking and Payments at Celent, comments: “The tipping point is sooner than many think—SCT Inst volumes will overtake SEPA Credit by 2030 and will accelerate away. Longer-term developments, such as agentic commerce, stablecoins, and especially the Digital Euro, are likely to have further impact on SCT Inst volumes. Agility and the ability to respond to changes matter more than ever before.”
Lodge, Principal Analyst, Payments at Celent, concludes: “The move to instant payments in Europe is accelerating a broader transformation towards real-time, intelligent banking. Compliance with IPR is merely the first step. The real winners will be institutions that go beyond compliance and innovate on top of instant payments, creating seamless, secure, and intelligent payment experiences, where money moves as fast as information, and banking truly happens in an instant.”
