Instant Payment is a principle of instant transfer that is gradually appearing in the payment ecosystem. Transfer times for transfers can be too long, especially for transactions between professionals. Olkypay already offers Instant Payment in the family of payment methods offered to its customers to receive or send money, in line with the objectives of PSD2.

A real opportunity for merchants

Instant Payment is indeed a real opportunity for payment players to offer innovative services to merchants and e-merchants. Traditional transfer times vary from 1 to 5 business days depending on the type of transfer (between two European accounts, international transfer, etc.). This long delay is necessary to validate the payment: a SEPA transfer must be verified by the issuing and receiving banks. The purpose of this validation is to ensure the validity of the banking information provided and to verify the solvency of the debtor account.

Even if these delays are not excessive, they can be a source of problems, especially in the professional world. The payment players, including Olkypay, were looking for a way to shorten these delays, to the point of making them disappear completely. This desire is in line with the improvement of the customer experience, which has become a key issue in the purchasing process. Today's consumers are increasingly accustomed to personalized, omnichannel and secure shopping experiences. Instant Payment is in line with these improvements in the customer experience, aiming to make transfers between private individuals and professionals more fluid and rapid.

Here are some examples of the benefits of instant transfer:

• E-merchants will have direct access to funds after an Instant Payment transaction on their site.
• In the event of a claim, insurance companies will be able to reimburse beneficiaries immediately, allowing them to bounce back quickly.
• In the case of a sale between individuals, the instant transfer makes it possible to ensure to be paid on the fact, without having to wait for the times mentioned at the beginning of the article.

These examples are exhaustive and only consider a part of the possibilities offered by Instant Payment. Its use in the business world can considerably improve the relationship between suppliers and customers, which is why Olkypay offers it to its customers.

Instantaneous large-value transfers

For Olkypay, it is important to address the needs of merchants and e-merchants by offering them adapted services. In order for Instant Payment to be viable at the professional level, it was necessary to adapt its ceiling to transactions between professionals. With this in mind, Olkypay decided to offer instant transfers of up to €100,000, an amount adapted to the majority of professional transactions.

This €100,000 cap has been made possible by the ECB since July 2020, but very few payment players have dared to offer it at its maximum. At Olkypay we have decided to fully embrace these new standards, making our service unique in Europe, as the ceilings offered by traditional banks rarely exceed €15,000.

Instant Payment

Instant Payment also makes it possible to dispense with the use of a bank card, bypassing the Mastercard and VISA networks and thus avoiding the interbank commissions associated with this type of transaction. By eliminating an intermediary, the costs of the service are reduced for merchants and e-merchants. Organizations like Olkypay benefit from increased autonomy in processing their customers' transactions, making the relationship between the two parties more direct and with the least amount of intermediaries possible.

Instant Payment is going to impose itself little by little, being pushed by the European banking authorities through the DSP2. It joins the growing family of payment methods, both in the private and professional fields. Olkypay has been thinking about this topic for years, having allowed us to adapt our Instant Payment solution to the European financial standards and Payment Services Directives.