Instant credit transfers, from 9 January will cost the same as ordinary ones

From Thursday 9 January 2025 it will be possible to use the instant credit transfers also to make payments to the public administration. It will therefore be possible to make a transfer, which will release the debtor within 10 seconds of the payment order and will be credited to the account of the public administration within 10 seconds of the transaction being sent, to pay, for example, fines (for which a PagoPa notice has not been received), school canteen bills, stamp duty and unsuccessful current account debits.

A rather useful extra option if, for example, you remember at the last minute, even at the weekend, to pay a fine and want to make good. The same for state and municipal taxes, by making the transfer via the bank's online site. Payments through PagoPA, on the other hand, can currently only be made using payment cards.

The operation to allow instant credit transfers to the public administration is not yet complete because the banks, which perform the treasury service for public administrations, are waiting for a circular from the Ministry of the Economy to clarify the technical modalities to implement the European regulation, making the EU rules compatible with the national public administration's system of rules.

After all, a similar path was necessary for the transposition of the requirements of the Psd2 directive on digital payments. One of the key steps to be defined concerns the checks to be carried out by the treasury bank before the 10 seconds from the transfer order.

For payment from the Pa to the user, the instant credit transfer will only start on 9 October 2025. A complex aspect concerns the verification of the congruence between the Iban and the name of the beneficiary when it is the Pa that makes the instant payment; the time to define the technical aspects that are missing is not only very long.