The continuation of the propagation of instant payments demonstrates the usefulness and efficiency of the service, its ease of use, its attractiveness for final consumers but also for banking financial institutions.
At the moment, the community of banks that have instant payments in their service portfolio consists of: Banca Transilvania, CEC Bank, Libra Internet Bank, Banca Comercială Română and Vista Bank, banks oriented towards innovation, customer satisfaction and meeting their needs.
The Instant Payment Service ensures the transfer of money in less than 10 seconds between banks, according to the rules inscribed in the payment scheme that governs this payment instrument. In practice, since its launch, the actual transfer time between two participating banks is about 4 seconds. Such a payment can be made at any time (24/7/365), and its individual value falls below 50 thousand lei.
Instant payments are made available to end users of financial services, whether they are consumers or businesses, as well as to banks and other payment service providers wishing to operate in the local market, allowing one of the most important requirements of open banking, respectively the transfer of funds in real time between customers. The continuous development of the service keeps Romania on the map of countries aligned to the most modern standards in the field.
”Consistent with our strategy of providing high quality services to our customers and transforming the customer experience in line with his expectations, we initiated the Instant Payments project together with TRANSFOND. Instant payments will become the new payment standard in the near future, changing the perspective of payments, as customers can make transactions in real time and outside of business hours, any day of the year. We thank TRANSFOND for the excellent collaboration throughout the project implementation. ” – said Georgios Athanasopoulos, General Manager of Vista Bank
“It is a certainty that, both at European and international level, instant payments will represent the standard for conducting electronic transactions and we are convinced that it will become widespread in the Romanian market in a time horizon that we consider quite near. Once the general economic processes are relaunched, we are confident that banks will resume the expected speeds of development of their services and will take the necessary steps to join the Instant Payments service, given that, from existing practices, the provision of this service can improve the percentage of customer retention and can also attract new customers. ”- said Sabin Carantină, General Manager of Transfond.
From the point of view of payment volumes, the Instant Payments service registers in the first 7 months of this year with 55% more transactions than in the whole year 2020, and the trend is one of permanent growth, from one month to another. With each financial institution enrolled, the network effect amplifies the addressability of the service, providing end customers with a complete payment experience, which will ultimately be available to any bank or payment account holder.
Specifically, in order to pay instantly, the end-user of payment services does not need to purchase or install an application dedicated to the service, nor to register in a separate interface for instant payments. The only condition that must be met in order to benefit from instant payments is that the service be provided by the bank or non-bank payment provider of the initiator and by the bank or non-bank payment provider of the payment beneficiary, especially through mobile platforms. banking and internet banking (although there are already offers of such services available right at the banks’ physical counters, if a willing customer is not “connected” or “connectable”).
Vista Bank has been present on the Romanian banking market since 1998, being previously known as Marfin Bank. By taking over in July 2018 by a new strong shareholder, one of the largest industrial conglomerates in Southeast Europe, the bank experienced a significant consolidation in business, management and strategy. With a network of 31 branches, Vista Bank offers medium and large corporate clients as well as above-average corporate clients, value-added financial solutions and personalized, high-quality services.
–
If you like this article, we expect you to join the community of readers on our Facebook page, with a Like below:
.
