Payment service providers should offer more services for instant payments

Published: 12 March 2026

The Riksbank’s recommendation

Banks and other payment service providers should offer more instant payment services to their customers, both individuals and businesses. For example, banks that provide regular account-to-account payments via internet banking should also offer instant payments to their customers.

Within one year (by March 2027), the Riksbank expects the market to have started offering such services, or to have communicated a plan to do so in the near future. The Riksbank considers it important for innovation, competition and to enable the development of payment services based on Swedish and European infrastructure, thereby strengthening Sweden’s autonomy in the field of payments. If the market fails to do this, the Riksbank considers that legislation should be introduced, similar to the EU's Instant Payments in Euro Regulation, but adapted to Swedish conditions.

The Riksbank has previously pointed out that banks and other payment service providers should offer their customers more types of instant payments through RIX-INST. There has been no significant improvement, even though participants in RIX-INST having had the conditions to develop such services since November 2024. The Riksbank’s view of the current situation is that the market has no clear plans to offer its customers more types of instant payments through RIX-INST in the near future.

Bankgirot’s transformation, which you can read about in the fact box “Bankgirot is modernising and changing” in section “Modernising the payments market”, partly involves introducing technical support for continuous clearing. This may make the payment process more efficient, but it does not mean that consumers can necessarily send and receive bank transfers immediately. Nor does it mean that consumers can make payments in the evenings or at weekends. The Riksbank considers it important that the banks, in addition to the initiative for continuous clearing, develop services that allow this.

The Riksbank also assesses that more types of instant payments can increase efficiency and competition on the payment market. For example, this would reduce the need for clearing intermediaries and could improve liquidity management for companies. At the same time, risks need to be taken into account, in particular the ability to detect and prevent fraud in real time. One way of preventing fraud is to create an extra layer of control in the payment flow, for example through functions that allow you to check that the payment is going to the right recipient (what is known as Verification of Payee). This is currently possible in Swish, for example. In addition, banks need to be able to carry out the controls required by anti-money laundering regulations and international sanctions.

The background and assessments are also described in sections “Modernising the payments market” and “Instant payments are efficient but the supply is limited and they come with risks that need to be managed”.