2026-03-26
CENTROlink: in 2025, two-thirds of all payments processed were instant payments
In 2025, as many as two-thirds of all euro payments in the CENTROlink payment system of Lietuvos bankas were instant payments, and the total number of transactions over the year increased by nearly a third. By the end of the year, 138 payment service providers from twenty countries were using CENTROlink services.
“Instant payments are now well established in Lithuania as the primary method of settlement, which only demonstrates the progress of our payment infrastructure in Europe. As recently as 2022, instant payments accounted for less than half of all transactions processed in CENTROlink, and today they make up more than two-thirds,” says Evaldas Ruzgys, a member of the Board of Lietuvos bankas.
Last year, 379.7 million payments were processed in the CENTROlink system, which is by 28.9% more than in 2024 (294.6 million). The value of payments processed grew by 35.2% to €838 billion (€620 billion in 2024).
Last year, the share of instant payments in Lithuania was 68% (60% in 2024), which is significantly higher than that across the euro area: according to European Central Bank, in the first half of 2025 they accounted for only about 23% of all transfers. In the previous year, the number of payment service providers able to offer instant transfers in Lithuania increased by one and a half times to 96.
In 2025, the share of standard transfers in Lithuania fell to 24% (35% in 2024), while SEPA direct debit transfers accounted for 8% of payments processed (5% in 2024).
Some interesting facts about CENTROlink operations in 2025:
- the highest daily number of payments – 1.755 million transactions – was recorded on 1 October;
- the highest single-day number of instant payments exceeding 1 million transactions was recorded on 28 November;
- the peak for instant payments reached 185 transactions per second;
- the largest payment amount was €996.48 million.
During 2025, eleven new payment service providers joined CENTROlink. Out of them, six are from Lithuania, two from Finland and Malta each, and one from Sweden.
To promote innovative payments, Lietuvos bankas also provides additional services that enhance payment security and help reduce the risk of fraud.
To ensure the smooth implementation of new EU requirements and to meet market needs, in 2025, Lietuvos bankas introduced the Verification of Payee (VoP) service in the CENTROlink system. It helps verify whether the specified payee details match the account information.
Although such service is not mandatory for the central bank, the solution was developed to enable system participants to use both payment and VoP functionalities within a single infrastructure. This project received an award from the Lithuanian Project Management Association in the technology projects category.
Lietuvos bankas also provides a Proxy Lookup Service (PLS). It allows making payments by using a phone number. Swedbank, AB, and AB SEB Bank had already been using this service, and last year they were joined by the Lithuanian branch of the Latvian AS Citadele banka.
In 2025, more than 30.6 million PLS transactions and, since October, 7.8 million VoP requests were processed.
The migration of current CENTROlink participants – electronic money institutions (EMIs) and payment institutions (PIs) – to direct participants proved to be successful. By the end of 2025, 80 participants had been migrated, and this process will continue in phases until the end of 2026.
Last year, EMIs and PIs were granted direct access to payment systems across Europe, including retail payment systems operated by central banks. It makes it easier and simpler for these companies to provide consumers and businesses with credit transfer and instant payment services across the EU and European Economic Area countries, strengthens competition in the payments sector and offers consumers a wider choice.
CENTROlink contributes to the growth of the FinTech sector in Lithuania, helps attract new market participants and enables the provision of innovative payment services across Europe. Lietuvos bankas aims to ensure that the payment infrastructure is reliable, competitive and open to market participants and that, at the European level, Lithuania’s name is associated with advanced payment solutions.