Switzerland's mandatory instant payment deadline is eight months away, and the readiness picture is concerning. A survey of Group 2 institutions, the roughly 180 financial institutions required to join SIC IP by November 2026, found that 43 percent had not begun preparations. With migration slots for later in the timeline already fully booked, institutions that delayed are now forced into earlier launch windows, compressing an already tight implementation schedule.
Phase 1 of SIC IP, completed in 2024, brought 63 of Switzerland's largest banks onto the instant payment platform. These institutions handle over 95 percent of Swiss retail payment volume and currently process approximately 10,000 instant transactions per day. The system, operated by SIX on behalf of the Swiss National Bank, settles each payment in central bank money within 10 seconds.
Phase 2 presents a different challenge. The remaining institutions include smaller cantonal banks, cooperative banks, and regional financial institutions whose core systems may not support the always-on, real-time processing model that SIC IP requires. Transitioning from batch-based systems to continuous availability demands changes to core banking platforms, fraud screening processes, and sanctions compliance workflows. The 10-second processing requirement means that manual review steps must be automated.
Resource constraints compound the problem. Thirteen percent of surveyed institutions cited a lack of IT resources as a major obstacle. Many share the same technology vendors, creating bottlenecks as multiple banks attempt to implement simultaneously. Institutions that started early secured the most favorable migration windows, while those that waited now face compressed timelines and less vendor capacity.
SIX Group's 2025 annual results, published on March 24, 2026, show that Banking Services revenue grew 14.2 percent year-on-year to CHF 221.1 million, with instant payments cited as a key development. The overall SIC system processed 1.029 billion transactions in 2025, a 2.2 percent increase from 2024. SIX does not separately disclose SIC IP transaction values.
The final migration slot is October 2026, one month before the deadline. Institutions requiring the typical 12-month preparation timeline should have started by October 2025 at the latest. For the 43 percent that had not begun as of the last survey, the window is closing. Whether these institutions can accelerate their programs or the November deadline faces pressure for extension will determine whether Switzerland achieves universal instant payment coverage on schedule.