Combating fraud in the age of instant payments
The introduction of the mandatory SEPA Instant Payment Scheme on April 4th, 2024, has kicked off the far-reaching transformation of the European payments landscape.
In October 2025, a new milestone has been achieved. Credit institutions in the Eurozone must now allow their customers to send and receive payments instantaneously.
While this new era for payments promises unprecedented speed and accessibility for consumers, it also increases the exposure of institutions and their customers to fraud. The irrevocable nature of instant payments and the rise of AI-driven scams require financial institutions to modernise their fraud prevention and detection strategies and frameworks.
This report explores the regulatory, operational, and technological challenges of instant payments, and reveals how financial institutions can modernise their anti-fraud frameworks, leveraging AI, real-time analytics, and collaborative intelligence sharing, to protect their customers and maintain the integrity of the financial system.