Make a SEPA Instant payment (SCT Inst) · Help centre

What's real Eleanor Whitfield · Corporate Treasurer E

Payments

Make a SEPA Instant payment (SCT Inst)

Send euros to any reachable account in the SEPA zone in under ten seconds, any time of day.

When to use it

SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) settles a euro payment in under ten seconds, 24 hours a day, every day of the year — including weekends and public holidays. Use it when the beneficiary needs certainty of funds now: supplier payments against release of goods, payroll top-ups, or funding a same-day FX settlement.

The scheme limit is EUR 100,000 per transaction. For larger euro amounts use a standard SEPA Credit Transfer or a TARGET2 payment. The beneficiary's bank must be reachable for SCT Inst — most euro-area banks are, but not all; the portal tells you before you confirm.

How to send one

  1. 1Go to Payments -> New payment and choose SEPA Instant as the rail.
  2. 2Select the debit account (it must be a euro account) and enter the amount, up to EUR 100,000.
  3. 3Pick the beneficiary from your saved list, or add a new one with their IBAN and name. The portal validates the IBAN checksum and resolves the bank before you continue.
  4. 4Add a remittance reference the beneficiary will recognise — an invoice number keeps their reconciliation clean.
  5. 5Submit for approval. Under four-eyes a second authoriser releases it; the moment they do, funds leave and the beneficiary is credited within seconds.
Tip

You get a positive or negative confirmation back almost immediately. If the beneficiary bank cannot process it in time, the payment is rejected in full and the money never leaves your account — it is never left in limbo.

Required fields

FieldNotes
Debit accountA euro account you hold with us
Beneficiary IBANValidated with the ISO 7064 mod-97 check digit
Beneficiary nameMust match the account holder; mismatches can trigger a hold
AmountEUR, up to 100,000 per transaction
Remittance informationUp to 140 characters, unstructured or structured (RF creditor reference)
Was this helpful? Your answer tunes what we surface first — and shows us where a guide falls short.
Still need help? Raise an enquiry and our service desk picks it up — you get a tracked ticket reference and a response-time target. Raise an enquiry
Opens a service-desk ticket · four-eyes & SLA tracked

About this guide

Topic
Making payments
Reading time
3 min
Views
4,122
Found helpful
96% (214/223)
Updated
16 Oct 2026
sepasct instinstanteuroeurcredit transfer