European Batch Clearing Volumes Contract in Early 2026 as Instant Rails Absorb Credit Transfers

STEP2 credit transfer daily averages declined to 25.4 million in Q1 2026 from 26.8 million in Q1 2025, a 5 percent year-on-year contraction. The decline continued into April, when STEP2 processed 26.8 million daily SCT transactions versus 28.4 million in April 2025. Average transaction values remained stable despite lower volumes, suggesting smaller retail transfers are migrating to SEPA Instant rails. Poland's Elixir system processed 555.23 million transactions in Q1 2026, down 1 percent year-on-year in volume.

Bankgirot recorded a sharper contraction, with February 2026 volumes down 7.9 percent year-on-year at 183 million transactions. Sweden's infrastructure transformation requires all payments to be processed in ISO 20022 XML format from 1 September 2026. STEP2 SDD Core processed 47.3 million daily transactions in April 2026, up 2.6 percent year-on-year. SDD B2B reached EUR 4.4 billion in daily value in April 2026, its highest monthly average on record.

The Instant Payments Regulation mandates that euro area PSPs offer instant credit transfers at batch pricing, removing the primary barrier to migration away from batch SCT. No equivalent regulatory mandate applies to direct debits. Express Elixir grew 10 percent in volume in April 2026. Elixir batch volume declined 1 percent over the same period, reflecting the same substitution pattern at national level. The EPC's VOP v1.1 scheme takes effect 20 September 2026. The structured address mandate follows on 15 November 2026, affecting all SEPA scheme participants.