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The Croatian Banking Association (HUB) has announced that SEPA instant payments will be introduced to Croatia’s payments system.
The scheme allows for the instant transfer of funds in euros within the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).
As of Wednesday’s announcement, all payment service providers in Croatia must be equipped to receive domestic and cross-border SEPA instant payments. The capability to send such payments will become mandatory from 9 October 2025.
Under the current system, transactions initiated outside business hours are processed only on the next working day through the Croatian Financial Agency’s EuroNKS payment system.
“This marks an important step in the modernisation and digitalisation of Croatia’s financial system,” HUB stated. Several Croatian banks have already implemented the service, getting ahead of the regulatory deadline.
The regulation stipulates that fees for instant payments must match those of standard transfers.
The enhanced service comes with stringent security measures. Banks must perform daily checks of client databases against sanction lists, as required by the Restrictive Measures Act. Under this, Croatian banks will conduct security checks identical to those of their European counterparts.
This comes within the broader push towards financial integration within the eurozone, which Croatia joined in 2023.
