Instant credit transfers, now the level of costs must be watched

The envisaged verification of the beneficiary of credit transfers, which banks will have to guarantee to customers as from 9 October next, together with the obligation to guarantee costs for instant credit transfers identical to those applied for ordinary credit transfers, tend to create a climate of confidence aimed at encouraging the use of instant payment instructions. However, it should be emphasised immediately that, as long as there is no need to transfer sums in real time, it is always better to finalise the payment with an ordinary credit transfer.

Instant payments, which by their nature do not allow the transaction to be blocked or recalled once executed, are more at risk of fraud and data entry errors. A higher risk, therefore, linked to the reduced possibility of reaction that remains (especially in terms of exposure to fraud) even with the prior verification of the beneficiary, which will also be mandatory for traditional credit transfers.

Instant credit transfers are more insidious because they are more susceptible to payer manipulation fraud: fraud that is carried out with the consent of the account holder, who, in good faith, is induced by the fraudster to give a payment instruction, using the most varied motives, such as a relative in distress.

The problem is that it is we ourselves who make the payment, and consequently it is more difficult to identify any responsibility on the part of the bank in order to be able to demand a refund, and so in these cases the burden of loss often falls on the user. In the case of credit transfers, where this type of fraud is prevalent, 89% of the losses are borne by the customer, as shown by the latest data released by the Bank of Italy. One must therefore always be wary of people who convey a sense of urgency and, often, fear with messages and on the telephone. If we have any doubts, before making a transfer it is essential to verify the identity of the person who wrote or called us, calling him back without using the contacts provided in the messages or during the phone calls, but using those in our address book or searching for them ourselves on the web.

Every 12 months, banks have to submit a report to the Authority on failed transfers, those rejected also due to anti-money laundering rules, and the level of commissions charged to customers. With regard to costs, in the march towards the new rules, banks were required to align the commissions for instant credit transfers to those for ordinary ones, with no possibility of increasing them. And so it was, as Plus24 has been able to ascertain since August 2023 with its Observatory on the costs of credit transfers applied by 16 leading banks. The adjustment actually took place with a downward alignment..