Revolut joins Instant Payments network in Romania

 The Revolut digital bank, with over 4 million customers on the local market, joined the Instant Payments network in Romania last week, the company announced in a statement sent on Thursday.The service was developed by TRANSFOND, the operator of the Automatic Interbank Payments Clearing House, in collaboration with commercial banks, the Romanian Association of Banks (Administrator of National Payment Schemes) and the National Bank of Romania (Supervisor of Payment Schemes).The Instant Payments service works without interruption (24/7) and ensures the immediate transfer of funds between customer accounts (account to account), regardless of whether they are opened at the same bank or at different banks. Both individuals and companies benefit from this service, which guarantees the secure execution of transactions from cyber and operational perspectives. Funds are transferred from one account to another in a maximum of 10 seconds, offering a fast and reliable solution for all types of payments."By integrating the TRANSFOND instant payment system, Revolut contributes to the development of the cashless economy in our country, a mission that started 6 years ago, with the ambition to revolutionize the local banking market. Our objective is to help clients get even more much from their money, to give them even more control over their own financial funds, regardless of whether they use Revolut to make payments, savings or investments, our application offers them an ecosystem for the centralization and optimization of financial decisions," said Gabriela Simion, general director of Revolut Bank UAB Romania, quoted in the press release.From the time the service was launched in 2019, with four participating institutions (CEC Bank, Banca Transilvania, Libra Internet Bank, BCR), and until now (the service is now offered by 18 financial institutions, including Revolut), the average annual availability was over 99.9%. Instant payments can make transfers with an individual value of up to 50,000 RON.The Instant Payments service offers numerous benefits to individual users, facilitating quick payments for goods and services, both online and in the real environment (at small and large merchants), without using a bank card. For consumers, the service allows immediate transfers to friends, family, suppliers or other recipients, eliminating waiting times. For companies, regardless of size, Instant Payments represent an essential solution for making urgent payments, ensuring operational continuity without delays caused by the confirmation or collection of funds. Also, the service provides better control of the cash flow and a solid basis for uninterrupted business activity, as it is available 24/7/365.In addition, merchants who integrate this option into their offer benefit from the immediate receipt of funds and the opportunity to develop loyalty programs or promotional campaigns based on the use of instant payments, thus contributing to increasing customer satisfaction and promoting their own services and products."Revolut joins the Instant Payments ecosystem that offers Romanian consumers and companies a modern digital experience adapted to current requirements. Prior to joining Revolut, we registered the participation of a significant number of financial institutions in the Instant Payments system, which together cover approximately 90% of the total volume of retail interbank payments This broad adoption reflects the market's commitment financial-banking towards the improvement of payment services, expressing at the same time the institutions' openness to the development of new services with added value, based on Instant Payments, such as payments that use QR code scanning, deep link, NFC (contactless) or use the mobile number," said Sabin Carantina, General Director of TRANSFOND, quoted in the press release.Revolut is a global financial company that launched in 2015 in the UK, offering money transfer and currency exchange services. Currently, more than 50 million customers worldwide use dozens of Revolut products to perform more than half a billion transactions per month.TRANSFOND is the administrator and operator of the Automatic Clearing House for interbank commercial payments. The main activity consists in the provision of services to financial and financial-banking institutions, regarding interbank retail payments in local currency and in euros, both nationally and cross-border. In October 2024, TRANSFOND launched RoPay - the first national service for instant mobile payments, made directly from one bank account to another A2A ("account-to-account"), which uses technologies such as QR code scanning, deep link , NFC (contactless) or the mobile number as an alias ("proxy") for the IBAN.