The Swiss National Bank announced that roughly 60 financial institutions in the country can now send and receive instant payments, covering over 95% of retail transactions.
The central bank said that more banks will be added over the next few months and anticipates that all of financial institutions in Switzerland will support instant payments by the end of 2026. The platform was facilitated though a partnership with financial services company SIX.
“Instant payments allow private individuals and companies to perform account-to-account transactions with immediate execution and final settlement in seconds, around the clock,” the Swiss National Bank said in a statement. “This market launch represents a further important milestone and reflects the collective stakeholder commitment to the future of cashless payments in Switzerland.”
Cash Affinity
Instant payments have been adopted much faster in other parts of Europe, whether they have been available since 2017. In contrast, the Swiss have had a much stronger affinity for cash payments, as evidenced by a recent Swiss National Bank study that found cash to be the country’s most widely accepted payment method.
According to the central bank, roughly 92% of customer-facing Swiss companies accept cash, while 59% accept payment apps. This reliance on physical payment has raised concerns among some Swiss regulators about the shift to digital transactions.
It’s not uncommon for Swiss citizens to pay for large transactions, including car purchases, with cash. The concern is that a widespread movement to payment apps, coupled with the reduced availability of banks and ATMs, could marginalize young consumers and the elderly.
Slow to Catch On
Instant payments have been slow to catch on in the U.S. as well, though not due to an attachment to cash. The established banking system and the comfort with card payments have kept instant payments adoption on the back burner.
This has begun to change since the launch of FedNow and RTP. FedNow has grown to include 900 financial institutions in just a year, though that is a fraction of the 10,000 institutions in the U.S.
“FedNow adoption is growing, and financial institutions know that instant payments are something that they need, given all the other technologies that we have are immediate and real time,” said Elisa Tavilla, Director of Debit Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research, in an earlier interview with PaymentsJournal. “Everything else in our lives is real time now—payments should be too.”