Instant payments
speed up your interbank payments in seconds
Instant payments bring the ability to send
and receive money between banks in a couple of seconds.
Benefits for your business
Alternative to payment cards
Paying by instant payment. Another option to pay for goods and services online,
e.g. in e-shops, on public administration
or non-profit portals.
Minimising cash
Facilitate payment in common situations, e.g. the customer pays a repairman immediately via an app, not in cash
Alternative to a POS terminal
An appropriate alternative to a POS terminal for small traders
Bulk instant payments in Business24
Instant payments can be sent by manual bulk payment order, import via bulk orders, or file transfer.
24/7 service availability
Non-stop availability even on weekends or holidays throughout the year, without the need to monitor the next possible due date
Solving emergency situations
Forgotten or late payments, crediting payments in a few seconds to banks that support instant payments in 26 countries
Benefits for small businesses
Improving invoice maturity – quickly receive invoice payments from clients
Benefits for your business
Even more secure payments
From October 5, 2025, we are introducing a new security feature called Verification of Payee when making payments in euros.
What does this mean for you?
- When making payments, it will no longer be sufficient to enter only the IBAN.
- If you are sending money to a natural person, enter their full name and surname correctly.
- If you are sending money to a legal entity, enter its exact and unabbreviated business name (as listed in the commercial or other register).
The system will then automatically verify whether the recipient's details (name and IBAN) match the details held by the recipient's bank. If not, you will be notified.
Verification of Payee is a new European Union service that banks are required to use for all payments (both standard and instant) in euros within the European Economic Area to banks that support SEPA payments.
Parameters and operation
Free of charge
The service is included
in packages
with no extra charge.
Predefined daily limit € 50,000
You simply
change it in Business24
through the administration service.
Select payment type
For each payment in Business24
you choose whether you want it
to be an instant payment.
Parameters and operation
Related products
Questions and answers
Through George or internetbanking for firms Business24 – in both cases via the desktop version or via the app. For the payment to go immediately, the service needs to be supported by the payer’s bank as well as the payee’s bank.
No, the currently available app versions for George (minimum iOS 21.46.7 and Android 21.46.5) and for Business24 (iOS 1.49.5 and Android, Huawei 1.49.6) are ready for instant payments. If you have the current version of the app, then from 1. 2. 2022 you have the instant payment service automatically supported.
It is quite simple. As before, you will enter a payment order via George or Business24 and the system automatically checks whether the payee’s account is at a bank that is ready to receive instant payments. If yes, in the case of George the default will be to send the payment as instant. However, you can change this option via the button and send the payment as a standard SEPA payment.
In internetbanking for firms Business24 it will be similar, with the only difference being that the default transfer type will be Standard. If you want to send an instant payment, change your transfer type to Instant.
If you enter a payment with a due date in Business24 As soon as possible and the payee’s bank supports instant payments, Business24 will suggest changing the transfer type from standard to instant by the notification:
The payee’s bank is available for instant transfer. To perform the transfer as Instant, please change its type.
The maximum amount of one instant payment, set by the SEPA regulation, is € 100 000.
- In George the daily limit is € 5 000 (the limit for an instant payment cannot be adjusted),
- For Business24 is a daily limit of € 50 000 (the limit can be adjusted).
We set these limits based on our data as a compromise of user experience and security.
The daily limit for instant payments for Business24 is € 50 000 per account. If you have Account Administration activated in Business24, you can change the amount of this limit via Business24 in the Settings menu, Administration tab. You can ask your relationship manager for contracting Administration.
The total time for an instant payment depends on the processing speed at the payer’s and payee’s bank and the processing time on the clearing system, i.e. the time may vary with each instant payment. We expect most transactions to be completed in a few seconds.
At our bank, we can process instant payments in well under 10 seconds.
From 9 January 2025, all banks are obliged to accept instant payments in the same way as standard SEPA payments.
Instant payments are accepted by all banks in Slovakia and by other banks providing this service in 26 other countries.
Normally, as soon as the client confirms the instant payment, the payer’s bank performs several complex checks (at our bank, these checks take less than a hundredth of a second). Subsequently, within 10 seconds, the payee’s bank must acknowledge receipt of the payment and allow the payee to handle these funds.
No, the processing of other payments remains unchanged; the standard SEPA payment will be made no later than the next working day.
The structure of the XML account statement (camt.053) has not changed. New transaction codes have been added to differentiate account turnover resulting from an instant payment: