According to Público, banks required to make immediate transfers at no additional cost in 2025.

Starting next year, all institutions that provide bank transfer services will be required to provide immediate transfers, a tool that allows money to be received in an account just seconds after a payment order. And, unlike what happens today, the commissions charged for these cannot be higher than those charged for normal transfers.

The rule results from a new community regulation, approved this year by the European Parliament and now highlighted in the most recent Payment Systems Report, published on 2 May by Banco de Portugal.

There are two main changes: on the one hand, all institutions that provide bank transfers (so-called credit transfers, commonly used by most customers, which allow money to be received in the recipient's account 24 hours after the payment order) will be obliged to also make immediate transfers available. On the other hand, the charges for this service will have to be equivalent to those for credit transfers, which means that banks will not be able to charge more commissions for immediate transfers than those they charge for other transfers.

The new rules will be applied in two stages. On January 9, 2025, institutions will be required to guarantee equalisation of charges and accept receiving immediate transfers.

As of October 9, 2025, all will also be required to allow their customers to send immediate transfers.

The big difference will be in the cost of this service, which will have to be equated to normal transfers. In Portugal, as a general rule, immediate transfers cost more than 1 euro per operation, one of the factors that, in fact, have contributed to this tool not being adopted by customers. In 2023, according to the Payment Systems Report, the use of immediate transfers increased by 33% in quantity and value, compared to the previous year, but these continued to represent only 5.2% of total transfers made in Portugal, well below the European average, which is 15.5%.