The EBA Clearing RT1 instant payment system settled an average of 6.4 billion euros per day in January 2026, according to the latest statistics published on the EBA Clearing website. This represents a near-threefold increase from January 2025, when the daily average value stood at 2.4 billion euros.
The growth trajectory through 2025 reveals a clear inflection point. From January through September, RT1 daily settlement values climbed steadily from 2.4 billion euros to 3.8 billion euros, averaging roughly 3 billion euros per day across the first nine months. Then in October 2025, when the EU Instant Payments Regulation sending mandate took effect on October 9 and the SCT Inst maximum transaction amount was raised from 100,000 euros to 999,999,999.99 euros on October 5, the daily average jumped to 5 billion euros. November followed at 5.7 billion euros and December peaked at 7 billion euros, the highest monthly average in RT1 history.
The value growth significantly outpaced transaction volume growth over the same period. RT1 processed an average of 3.66 million transactions per day in January 2025, rising to 6.11 million in January 2026, a 67 percent increase. By contrast, daily settlement values grew 167 percent over the same twelve months. This divergence indicates that the average transaction size on RT1 has increased substantially, consistent with corporate treasuries and institutional payers routing higher-value payments through instant channels now that the regulatory framework mandates availability and the transaction ceiling has been effectively removed.
The October step-change is particularly telling. Between September and October 2025, daily average volume rose 7 percent from 5.21 million to 5.60 million transactions, a modest uptick. But daily average value jumped 32 percent from 3.8 billion to 5 billion euros. This disproportionate value increase, arriving precisely when the sending mandate and amount limit change took effect, provides strong evidence that the IPR is driving a structural shift in the composition of RT1 traffic rather than merely adding more consumer transactions.
The January 2026 moderation to 6.4 billion euros from December's 7 billion euro peak likely reflects normal seasonal patterns. December typically sees elevated payment activity across all European payment systems due to year-end settlement obligations and holiday-related transfers. EURO1, the large-value payment system also operated by EBA Clearing, showed a similar December peak at 207 billion euros daily average before moderating to 185 billion euros in January.
These figures cover RT1 alone. RT1 is one of three pan-European clearing and settlement mechanisms for SEPA Instant Credit Transfers, alongside the Eurosystem's TARGET Instant Payment Settlement system and EBA Clearing's own STEP2-T service. The ECB's first-half 2025 statistics showed instant credit transfers accounting for 7 percent of total retail credit transfer value across the euro area, a proportion that has almost certainly risen materially since the October mandate given the value trajectory visible in the RT1 data.