Instant payments

The instant payment scheme (SCT Inst), having a potential scope of European countries that together form the Single Euro Payments Area, known as SEPA, was launched on 21 November 2017. Bank of Lithuania implemented this solution in its payment system CENTROlink.

Instant payments:

• Speed – the payer’s money will reach the beneficiary within seconds
• Convenience – funds are credited instantly even if they are transferred between accounts of different PSPs’ clients located in different countries
• 24/7 availability – instant payments are available 24/7, all year round, including weekends and holidays
• Increasing reachability – with the list of providers increasing, the service will eventually be available across all SEPA countries
• Security – instant payments are as secure as usual payments (e.g. made via online banking or an app)

In the future making instant payments will be even simpler. Our goal is to ensure that indicating the account number would not be necessary – the payer would only have to know the mobile number of the beneficiary.