Changes to bank transfers: Your bank must include a new service as of this date.

Who hasn't made a bank transfer at some point? Although we often use Bizum for its speed and convenience, the truth is that this payment method to other accounts is just as useful and remains very common.

One of the two types of transfers, the immediate transfer , is undergoing modifications starting in 2025. As its name suggests, these are those in which the money reaches the recipient immediately, in a matter of seconds. But its operation was limited by one condition.

And it all depended on the financial institution where the citizen had a checking account, as banks are not required to make this quick payment tool available to their users. However, this is about to change.

This is all due to European Regulation 2024/886 (you can read it at this link ), which imposed an obligation on all banks to provide instant transfer services. Although the regulation came into force in mid-2024, banks were given a grace period to adapt to this obligation, which expired on October 9, 2025 .

The regulation makes it clear: "Payment service providers that offer their payment service users a payment service for sending and receiving transfers must offer all their payment service users a payment service for sending and receiving immediate transfers ."

Regarding the mandatory date for this service, October 9th is the date imposed for those residing in countries with the euro, such as Spain. The rest had to do so before January 9th.

Furthermore, the same regulation requires banks to ensure that the cost of commissions for this service cannot be higher than that of ordinary transfers , which take longer to arrive: "The commissions charged by a payment service provider to originators and beneficiaries in relation to the sending and receiving of immediate transfers shall not be higher than the commissions charged by said payment service provider in relation to the sending and receiving of other transfers of an equivalent type.

As this holiday approaches, the Organization of Consumers and Users has taken the opportunity to denounce the limits set by some financial institutions for this type of transfer , which are far below the maximum limit set by European regulations, which is 100,000 euros.

In a statement on its website, the organization laments that some banks have "excessively low" limits and that transaction limits are sometimes imposed. These conditions, in the OCU's opinion, "force consumers to split amounts or resort to regular transfers, which can take up to two days to process."