All credit institutions, from 9 October 2025will be obliged to provide their customers with the opportunity to use the instant transfers. To ensure maximum safety in the use of this payment tool, banks will also be obliged to perform one real -time verification procedure on the IBAN and on the beneficiary data. If from this “Double control” Discrepancies will be, users will have to be promptly informed of the thing. The control, carried out in real time and without additional costs, can return four types of outcome: total correspondence, failure to correspondence, partial correspondence or impossibility of verification (for example because the current account is closed).
The measure responds to a very precise need: instant transfers – who transfer money in less than 10 seconds throughout the area Separate24 hours a day and 7 days a week – they are comfortable, but also irrevocable tools. Once sent, they cannot be canceled, and this feature makes them particularly sensitive tools to online scams and fraud or, trivially, to compilation errors by those who make the bank transfer. In addition to making the possibility of sending instant transfers with the same channels as ordinary ones, the European Union, in addition to making it compulsory, wanted to standardize the safety rules and the cost of the service, equal to that of ordinary transfers.
Double control is triggered to prevent scams and scams: what changes
In our country almost all banks already offer the possibility of making instant transfers, with a share of use of the 10% on the total wire transferswhile in Europe it reached 19.67%. At the same time, the number of online fraud is also growing, with beyond half a billion euros removed from Italians in the last three yearsaccording to an estimate of the Autonomous Italian Banking Federation. Knowing that the new system will warn you in case of inconsistencies between name and IBAN can help you use instant transfers with greater awareness, without giving up the advantages offered by the latter.
Instant wire transfers have already existed for some time and allow you to transfer euros between accounts located in the single area of payments in euros or Separate (Single Euro Payments Area) in Less than 10 secondseven in the days holidays and during the Night. The SEPA includes 33 countries (all those of the European Union plus Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and the Principality of Monaco), involving over 9,000 financial institutions. The main advantage of this system is the immediate availability of funds, a useful feature for urgent transactions or for those who have to receive a payment without expectations. However, the same immediacy is the reason why it is not possible to cancel an instant bank transfer after sending. If you fall victim to a scam (or even a simple typing error), the recovery of the sum becomes very complex.
To mitigate as much as possible this risk, From 9 October the “double control” will act as a preliminary filter: When you enter the recipient’s IBAN, the bank will compare the personal data with those associated with that account. In case of discrepancy, you will be notified before confirming the operation. The outcome of the control will arrive in seconds and can also report impossibility of verification, for example if the account is closed or blocked. Be careful, however, because the notice relating to any discrepancy will not prevent you from continuing, but it will offer you more information to decide whether to proceed or not, at your risk.
Digital payments and online scams growing in Italy
In Italy, The trend of use of digital payments is constantly growing. According to a report (already mentioned before) of the Autonomous Italian Banking Federationfrom 2020 to 2024 the total amount of the transfers increased 55.2% and the number of operations of the 49.1%with a surge in automated transfers. This change, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, has structurally moved the habits of citizens towards unparalleled solutions. The downside is the increase in digital scams, grown up by 30% Only in the last year. That’s why the need to resort to control systems is essential.
