STEP2 SDD Core processed an average of 47.3 million transactions per day in April 2026. This represents a 2.6 percent increase from 46.1 million in April 2025. Daily settlement values rose 7.5 percent to €8.6 billion from €8.0 billion. SDD B2B volumes reached a daily average of 420,000 transactions at €4.4 billion in value. This marked the highest monthly daily value average on record for the service.
STEP2 SCT daily averages declined year-on-year in every month of 2026, falling between 3.5 and 6.3 percent each month. Credit transfer values held roughly flat across the same period. The pattern indicates that lower-value, higher-frequency payments are migrating to instant rails. Larger-value transfers remain on batch infrastructure.
No equivalent instant direct debit scheme exists in SEPA. The mandate-based model, where creditors initiate collections on scheduled dates, serves a fundamentally different use case from payer-initiated credit transfers. ECB data from H1 2025 recorded 11.3 billion direct debits across the euro area worth €5.6 trillion. Volume grew 2.3 percent compared to H1 2024. Value grew 6.2 percent over the same period. With the EU Instant Payments Regulation driving further migration from batch to instant credit transfers through 2027, the volume gap between the two instrument types at STEP2 is likely to continue widening.