UniCredit has launched its instant payments solution in Italy and Germany. Immediately after the European instant payments infrastructure was officially in operation, UniCredit conducted its inaugural instant payment from Germany to Italy. The payment took exactly 2.5 seconds to be completed.

This makes UniCredit the first bank to offer real-time payments in Germany and the first to use the format for a crossborder payment.

The launch marks the beginning of the bank’s roll out of instant payments in line with the European Payments Council’s (EPC) SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme, as originally initiated by the European Central Bank. Instant payments allow clients to conduct payments within only a few seconds. As set by the EPC, there is a limit of 15,000 euro per transaction.

“We have always aimed to lead the way on developing instant payments solution for our clients,” said Gianfranco Bisagni, a UniCredit executive, “and we are excited about the benefits this new service will bring to our clients – promoting speed and transparency through 24-hour, 365-days-a-year coverage and real-time notifications of successful payments.”

UniCredit now offers instant payment execution for inbound payments in Italy and Germany and outbound payment execution in Germany. Outbound payment execution in Italy will be available on February 22, 2018.

UniCredit is a pan-European group with a network in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. The bank serves 14 core markets as well as another 18 countries worldwide.