How new Instant Payments Regulation will change things in Europe

The new Instant Payment Regulation (IPR) in Europe is one of the best pieces of news I have read in ages. It’s a brand-new regulation that will ensure all online payment processing times are standardized and processed in near-instant fashion across the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). 

In other words, companies will have to speed up their transactions/credit transfers and make sure they are settled within at least 10 seconds, no matter what time of the day it is or what day of the week it is. 

If you are an online gamer like me or always find yourself paying bills/invoices, buying groceries, trading cryptocurrencies, or doing anything else online that requires digital payments/transactions, then you should be thoroughly pleased with this fantastic news. 

Let’s dive straight in and take a closer look at this new European regulation and what it means for the average person like me. 

What is the IPR (Instant Payment Regulation), and why does it matter?

The IPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/886) first came into force back in April 2024 after the European Parliament and Council adopted it on March 13. The official compliance deadline date for this new regulation that would speed up online payments was as recently as January 9, 2025. 

The easiest way for me to describe it, in a nutshell, is that the IPR essentially requires all financial institutions, online banks, and other fintech solutions in the European Union to offer instant payments (i.e., processed within ten seconds) to customers 365 days per year, whether it’s Christmas Day, a Sunday evening, a bank holiday, or any other time when payments are notoriously slow. 

When I read the news, I must admit, I was super ecstatic because I can’t tell you how frustrated I have been with some of my online transactions taking too long. 

Most online business operators and financial institutions will more than happily take my money in the blink of an eye, but when it comes to processing refunds, paying out my rightful winnings on iGaming sites, or cashing out my recent cryptocurrency investment that I profited from, I find that it can sometimes take DAYS to be processed, even when using the fastest online payment methods.   

However, these days are gone, and I couldn’t be happier. It’s all thanks to this ground-breaking new regulation. More importantly, the IPR also applies to the United Kingdom because the UK is also a SEPA member despite not being a member of the European Union. 

What does the IPR entail?

European leaders came up with this new regulation to help stimulate the digital economy’s growth as it would make online transactions/payments quicker than ever but, more importantly, more secure. 

However, some have said the new regulation may also increase the risk of fraudulent activity. We will just have to wait and see what happens.  

Here are a few key details about the new Instant Payments Regulation:

• SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) members and PSPs (Payment Service Providers) had to comply with the initial set of obligations under the new Instant Payments Regulation by January 9, 2025
• The regulation requires PSPs to ensure credit transfers are processed instantly, regardless of the payment account’s currency
• The new regulation applies to all DD (direct debit) and credit transfers in Euros
• The regulation also focuses on ensuring fraudulent activity prevention and monitoring

Will the new IPR make my withdrawals quicker on my favourite iGaming sites?

Yes. Under the terms of the new regulation, anyone aged 18 or above who signs up to an instant withdrawal casino like those currently featured on the official AskGamblers UK review site, can now benefit from lightning-fast withdrawal times. 

In other words, instead of being processed in under one hour, which is considered fast on these digital entertainment websites, they should now be processed in near-instantaneous speeds. 

There will be no more waiting around to receive your winnings ever again unless you decide to withdraw your winnings using the old snail mail bank cheque payment method, which would still take up to a week to receive. 

However, in 2025, very few website operators will send out players’ winnings in the post like this via bank cheques unless this is the only payment method they will accept. 

I typically use my Apple Pay mobile wallet, Visa debit card or PayPal eWallet to deposit/withdraw and pay for things online, and I usually receive my winning withdrawals within a few hours, so it will be interesting to see how quickly it takes them to cash out my winnings under the new regulation. 

For example, even if the operator is experiencing a high volume of withdrawals, must I still wait around to receive my winnings, or will they be breaching the regulation? I guess I will soon find out. 

The one thing that I mustn’t forget to say is that although withdrawals should now be processed in near-instant time on your favourite websites, I would still suggest that you still devise a reasonable spending budget before depositing and gambling responsibly each time you log in to place bets or trade in crypto on your favourite platforms. 

Also, stick to using safe, reliable, low-cost online payment methods and avoid using ones nobody has ever heard of. 

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