Cross-border instant payments from the euro area
A euro transfer to another SEPA country already arrives within seconds as an instant payment. Once the payment changes currency, it falls back to the correspondent chain and takes one to five business days. Cross-border instant payments close that gap by connecting instant payment systems with each other. For the euro, the European Central Bank runs that work through TIPS, its instant payment settlement service.
What the ECB decided
In October 2024 the ECB's Governing Council decided to link TIPS with fast payment systems abroad along three lines: a cross-currency settlement service in TIPS based on the European Payments Council's OCT Inst scheme, joining the BIS network Project Nexus, and a bilateral link with India's Unified Payments Interface. The ECB names the G20 roadmap as the reason and notes that UPI handles almost 400 million transactions a day and that India is among the top ten recipients of euro area remittances.
TIPS cross-currency: euro, krona and krone
The first piece is live. On June 10, 2026 the ECB, Sveriges Riksbank and Danmarks Nationalbank activated the TIPS cross-currency service. A payment from euro into Swedish krona or Danish krone is processed and settled at the same moment in central bank money in both currencies. Payment service providers in TIPS, TIPS-DKK or the Riksbank's RIX-INST can join. Whether a German company's krona payment arrives in seconds therefore depends on both banks taking part.
UPI, Nexus and Switzerland
On November 20, 2025 the Governing Council started the realization phase for the TIPS link with UPI, kept studying a connection to Nexus Global Payments, and noted that work on a link to the Swiss instant payment system had begun in September 2025. The notice gives no date for go-live. Project Nexus connects domestic instant payment systems through one standard interface, so each system connects once and not once per corridor. A 2023 prototype linked test systems of the Eurosystem, Malaysia and Singapore, and in 2025 six Asian central banks founded Nexus Global Payments to run it, according to the BIS.
Where Swift fits
The banking industry has its own answer on the Swift side: gpi Instant hands the last leg of a cross-border payment to the domestic instant system of the beneficiary's country. The difference is the settlement: a TIPS link settles both currencies in central bank money at once, while a Swift payment still moves through correspondent accounts.
Upcoming payments events
Can I send an instant payment to another country?
In euro to a SEPA country, yes: banks in the euro area have to offer instant transfers and may not charge more for them than for a standard transfer. In another currency it depends on a link such as the TIPS cross-currency service for krona and krone, and on your bank taking part.
What is the TIPS cross-currency service?
A service of the Eurosystem's TARGET Instant Payment Settlement that settles a payment between TIPS accounts in different currencies at the same moment, in central bank money. It started with the euro, the Swedish krona and the Danish krone.
When will instant payments to India work?
The ECB started the realization phase for the link between TIPS and UPI in November 2025, with legal and technical work running in parallel. It has not announced a start date.
Cross-border instant payments and Finance Loop
Finance Loop is the meeting place in Germany for the people who build and run instant payments at banks, payment institutions and central bank projects. Finance Loop runs its own Frankfurt and Berlin formats on instant transfers and the digital euro, and is a strategic partner of the Digital Euro Association, host of the Digital Euro Conference in Frankfurt.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the adoption of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.