Switzerland has taken another step towards a cashless society. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) and the stock exchange and financial infrastructure operator SIX have launched a new system for direct transfers between individuals and companies.
“From now on, some 60 financial institutions will be able to receive and process instant payments,” the SNB said on Wednesday. “This covers more than 95 percent of Swiss customer payment transactions.” All financial institutions active in customer payment transactions must be connected to the system by the end of 2026.
With so-called instant payment systems, individuals and companies can make direct account-to-account transactions, which can be executed and processed at any time and within seconds. Funds are therefore immediately available and, thanks to shorter processing paths, the susceptibility to errors is reduced. For companies and banks, instant transfers create additional possibilities for process automation and linking to other services.
Conventional transfers will remain possible, but the SNB and SIX say they expect instant payments to become commonplace in Switzerland in the medium term. The central bank and SIX launched the project in November 2023. Instant payment systems are already in use in Europe and the US.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
