Bank of Finland makes renewed case for instant payments system

The Bank of Finland has said it would like to put an instant payments system in place.

In a statement on May 8, the bank said that with geopolitical pressures ratcheting up, Finnish people “must have access to inexpensive, versatile and reliable methods of payment and these must function securely even in exceptional situations”.

An instant payments system would also provide consumers with “greater choice” while enhancing the bank’s ability to govern payment systems and ensure they were functioning.

Bank of Finland board member Tuomas Välimäki said the country needed “a wider range of alternatives for making day-to-day payments”. He hoped Finland would “very quickly have a new retail payment system based on instant credit transfers available for people’s daily purchases”.

He added that “for a Finnish instant payment solution to emerge, all parties in the payments value chain will have to work closely together”.

Last October, the bank published an instant payments scheme rulebook detailing how such a system could work.

The bank has said it wants to create a solution that is compatible with European standards, as there is currently no single “widely recognised instant payment solution that works equally for customers of all banks and on the same terms”.

Neighbouring Sweden has long championed cutting-edge digital payments solutions, and Norway joined the Eurosystem’s Target instant payments system late last year.