meta_id 3185220

On May 26, 2026, Finland's Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) published a thematic assessment of instant payment services offered by banks, finding that although rapid transfer services generally function well, significant gaps exist in customer communications and fraud prevention measures. The FSA's assessment examined nine banks' instant and standard transfer services for retail customers, focusing on service availability, safety limits management, payee verification services and fraud monitoring. The assessment found that instant transfers are available in nearly all euro-denominated payment accounts and key channels such as online and mobile banking, with payment execution within the required ten-second timeframe generally meeting high standards. However, the FSA identified deficiencies in security practices, particularly regarding customer communications about instant transfers and fraud prevention. The FSA recommends several measures to strengthen payment security. Banks should actively communicate the importance of safety limits and ensure transfer limit options are equally comprehensive for both instant and standard transfers. The FSA further recommends that new customers be required to set their own safety limits upon service activation. Regarding payee verification services, mandatory across the eurozone since October 2025, the FSA found inconsistent implementation, particularly in how banks present information when payee details do not match. Banks must provide clear warnings that accepting payments may result in funds being transferred to the wrong recipients. The FSA also recommends enhanced real-time fraud monitoring using risk-based automatic blocking of suspicious transactions and real-time blocking of credential usage in critical situations, with particular attention to security during authentication application deployment on new devices. The FSA will monitor banks' implementation of these recommendations, which complement guidance provided in its 2025 online payment security thematic assessment.