What is SEPA and SEPA Instant?

SEPA stands for Single Euro Payments Area and is used when making cross-border European bank transfers. SEPA transactions generally take 1-2 business days (weekends and holidays excluded).

SEPA Instant is a feature within the SEPA framework that enables funds to be transferred in real-time, 24/7, within seconds, but it requires both the sending and receiving banks to be participants in the SEPA Instant scheme.

You can find a list of SEPA and SEPA Instant participating countries here: A list of countries that participate in SEPA and SEPA instant 

The main differences between SEPA Instant and regular SEPA payments are: 

1. Regular SEPA payments have 4 execution times during the day when payments are processed. SEPA Instant payments do not have cut-off times and can be executed at any time.
2. Regular SEPA payments are processed from 8:00 – 18:00; payments are not processed after these hours. Regular payments are not processed during weekends and public holidays, while SEPA Instant payments are processed continuously without interruptions. 
3. Regular SEPA payments do not have limits, while SEPA Instant have an outgoing 500,000.00 EUR limit set by our financial institution (transfers reaching this outgoing limit are sent out as regular SEPA).