Consumers in Switzerland can now send and receive payments in seconds following the market launch of instant payments across the banking industry.
Around 60 financial institutions are now able to receive and process instant payments, covering more than 95% of Swiss retail payment transactions.
By end-2026 at the latest, all financial institutions active in retail payment transactions will be reachable. The first institutions have already launched retail offerings enabling customers to send instant payments. In the coming months, further banks will announce similar services.
The technical framework for account-to-account transactions with immediate execution and final settlement in seconds was put in place with the go-live in November 2023 of a next generations national payment system.
Traditional transfers will still be possible, says the Swiss National Bank, but expectations are for instant payments to become the norm in the medium term and form the basis for further innovation in payment transactions.
Says SNB: "This market launch represents a further important milestone and reflects the collective stakeholder commitment to the future of cashless payments in Switzerland."