Instant payments – also known as real-time or immediate payments – are defined by the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB) as electronic retail payments that are available 24/7/365. They require the immediate or close-to-immediate interbank clearing of the transaction and crediting of the payee’s account with confirmation to the payer (usually within a maximum of 10 seconds of payment initiation). Instant payment focuses on low value retail payment systems (RPS); which differ from real-time gross settlement systems (RTGS) and distributed ledger payment systems.
