Gruppo Banca Sella, Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit go live with instant payments
The three banking groups are the first in Italy to provide SEPA Instant Credit Transfers via EBA Clearing’s RT1 system to their customers

Milan, November 21 2017 - Instant transfer payments in euro have arrived in Italy. Gruppo Banca Sella, Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit are the first banks in Italy to make the payment service based on the European Payments Council’s new SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme available to their customers.

Starting from today, the launch date of the scheme, all three banks use EBA Clearing's RT1 system, the first pan-European platform for real-time payments in euro. The RT1 system has been developed by EBA Clearing with the support of 39 funding banks from across Europe, including Gruppo Banca Sella, Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit.

The three Italian banks are therefore among the first in Europe to implement this new payment instrument, which immediately allows for instant transfer payments to be received from counterparties across the entire Single Euro Payments Area. Sending payments will be gradually implemented in the next few months , in accordance with the programmes of each of the member banks.

The instant transfer instrument allows payments in euro to be processed within seconds, so that the payment amount is immediately available to the beneficiary. Transfers can be done at any time, every day (including Saturdays and holidays), 24 hours a day, and the crediting of the beneficiary's account is immediate. The maximum amount per transfer is currently 15,000 euro.

In order to carry out an instant payment in euro, the transferor and the beneficiary must simply have an account at one of the banks participating in the SCT Inst scheme; no registration or further authorisation is required.

As more and more banks from Italy and across SEPA join the SCT Inst Scheme during 2018, the use of this new instant payment instrument will significantly grow. To date, more than 600 European banks from eight countries can already be reached with instant payments.

GRUPPO BANCA SELLA
Media Relations 
Tel: +390153501030
ufficiostampa@gruppobancasella.it

 INTESA SANPAOLO
Media Relations
Corporate & Investment Banking and International Media
Tel: +390287962052
stampa@intesasanpaolo.com

 UNICREDIT
 Media Relations
Tel: +390288623259
mediarelations@unicredit.eu
@UniCredit_PR