France

Like all countries in the Eurozone, France has adopted the pan-European SCT Inst scheme for instant payments. SCT Inst was developed by the European Payments Council (EPC) with the aim of creating an instant payments network within Europe — specifically the SEPA region. So far, the adoption of SCT Inst among financial institutions has been very slow, but the European Commission (EC) is working on a new Regulation that would extend access to instant payments in euro, which has now received political agreement. Among other provisions, this Regulation would place an obligation on EU payment service providers to offer instant payments in euro if they already offer “slower,” non-instant SEPA credit transfer means of euro transfer, making it cost-competitive with other bank transfer options.

The ability to transfer funds instantly, not only within France but also to other European markets, is expected to bolster usage in the long term. In 2023, instant payments represented only a 0.7% share of the total payments volume, as the payments industry in France is dominated heavily by card and traditional batch transfer payments. Paper-based payments still represent a 37.7% share of total payments volume in the market. By 2028, the market share of instant payments in France by volume is expected to reach 3.1%, with the market growing at an impressive CAGR of 39.1%.