Credit transfers

For OP customers, credit transfers are automatically available, free-of-charge, via all channels.

Real-time payments in seconds

Euro-denominated credit transfers can be completed within seconds between banks participating in SEPA instant credit transfer.

Liquidity management made easier

Funds are transferred in real time and are available immediately after arriving. One bank account is enough to cover the entire Single Euro Payments Area.

Payment details available immediately

You can reconcile your company’s sales ledger on the same day, speeding up deliveries and improving customer service.

For flexible, affordable payment

Finland belongs to the Single Euro Payments Area, SEPA, within which fees for euro-denominated cross-border payments are the same as domestic charges. You can make a payment order at any time on any day of the year. Charges are the same across the entire Single Euro Payments Area.

Approved payment orders made with the relevant material by 14.00 on a banking day are transferred to other banks across the SEPA area on the same day, within a few hours at most.

Real-time payments can be made, with no upper limit, via almost all banks operating in Finland. For the time being, some European banks apply an upper limit of 100,000 euros for single payments. If your payment is not denominated in euros, or you want to make a non-euro payment to a recipient outside the SEPA area, read more about cross-border payments.

SEPA instant credit transfers are being gradually adopted across Europe, with banks joining on their own schedules. Some participant banks may initially offer only the reception of SEPA instant credit transfers.

See a list of the banks participating in SEPA instant credit

Instant Payments Regulation

The EU's Instant Payments Regulation entered into force on 9 April 2024. The Instant Payments Regulation contains key provisions on instant credit transfers, which are essentially settled within 10 seconds, regardless of the time. In addition, the payer must be informed within the same time frame whether the transfer has been made to the payee. Any fees charged for instant credit transfers must not be more than those for standard credit transfers in euros.

The regulation also aims to make credit transfers safer. The payer’s service provider is required to offer the payer a service ensuring payee verification for each payment at no extra cost. This will help payers ensure they know to whom they are transferring credit and avoid payments being made into wrong accounts. Payers must also have the option of setting a usage limit for their payments.

The goal of the regulation is to accelerate the adoption of instant credit transfers within the EU. This will enable faster and more efficient payments in addition to making payment transactions easier and more convenient. The Instant Payments Regulation also seeks to increase the safety of payments and promote the development and deployment of innovative credit transfer-based payment services.

Transition limits for the regulation

According to the regulation, all banks of euro countries must receive instant payments within the EU starting from January 2025. Changes to sanctions screening also entered into force in January, with screening no longer focusing on individual instant payments but the customer base.

Many changes will take effect in October 2025. Banks of euro countries within the EU must be able to send instant payments, and the payments must be offered to customers without any amount limits through all channels that are used to offer regular credit transfers in euros. The instant payment must be in the payee's account within 10 seconds of the receipt of the order. This time limit also includes a notification from the payer's bank to the payer of whether the payment has been credited to the payee.

Payment accounts that are available to credit transfers must also be available to instant credit transfers. The payer must be able to set a payment-specific or daily usage limit of their choice for payment orders. It must be possible to change the limits at any time before making an order, and the changes made must take effect immediately.

The implementation of the regulation proceeds according to the same schedule across the EU area. Non-eurozone EU Member States must also implement the new rules, but they have a longer transition period. These countries must offer a payment service for receiving instant payments in euros by 9 April 2027, and a payment service for sending instant payments in euros by 9 July 2027.

How can I start using SEPA instant credit transfer?

As an OP customer, you can start using SEPA instant credit transfer without further action. This applies to both sending and receiving payments.
Normal SEPA credit transfers by corporate customers are forwarded as instant credit transfers via the payment service used: e.g. OP’s online service or OP's mobile apps. SEPA instant credit transfer is also a ‘payment type’ option in the Web Services channel.
You can use customised interface solutions to automate real-time payment transfer according to your company’s needs. Read more about payment transfer API solutions.
The service charge for SEPA instant credit transfers is the same as for other transfers with a reference number or message.

FAQ

When is the real-time payment scheme available?

Real-time payments (SEPA Instant Credit Transfers) can be made and received at any time: the service is available 24/7.

Which banks offer real-time payments?

Real-time payments can be made and received in all of Europe: the same service is available in the entire SEPA between participating banks. The scheme may be extended to cover 34 European countries.

What happens if the bank receiving the real-time payment does not participate in the scheme?

OP will specify the treatment of outgoing payments before adopting outgoing real-time payments.

What is the currency of real-time payments?

Real-time SEPA Instant Credit Transfers are euro payments.

Does the amount of real-time payment matter?

Inter-bank transfers in Finland currently do not have a euro-based upper limit. The upper limit in the SEPA scheme is now 15,000 euros. The upper limit will probably rise across SEPA and banks from other countries will join in the Closed User Group (CUG) without a maximum limit.

In the future, how are received payments updated?

Intraday account and reference transactions can already be retrieved 24/7/365 as a current day transaction statement query from the Web Services channel using the camt.052 message. More automated system integration via APIs will be available later.

How can I see whether a received payment was made as a real-time payment?

The transaction’s additional information message is “SEPA INSTANT CREDIT TRANSFER”. You will see this on the bank statement and transaction query, for instance. For payments made from another bank as a regular credit transfer, the additional information is “SEPA PAYMENT”

What will happen to urgent payments currently used in Finland?

When Finnish banks join in the new SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme, the old urgent payment will be replaced with the new real-time service with a broader geographical reach. Banks will join in the service in their own time.