Turkey's EFT Settles TRY 2 Trillion Daily as Retail Payments Shift to FAST

CBRT's EFT system saw daily settlement value climb 78 percent to TRY 2.03 trillion in 2024 as lira depreciation inflated nominal flows. Transaction counts fell 9 percent year over year. The FAST instant payment platform now processes 12.6 million messages per day, capturing migrating retail volume.

The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkiye's Electronic Fund Transfer system processed TRY 508.14 trillion across 2.9 million transactions in 2024. Daily average settlement value reached TRY 2.03 trillion, a 78 percent increase from TRY 1.13 trillion in 2023. The value increase primarily reflects Turkish lira depreciation rather than expanding real settlement volumes. Daily message counts fell to 11,600 from 12,900 in 2023, continuing a multi-year decline.

The FAST instant payment system absorbed the migrating retail volume. FAST processed 4.6 billion transactions worth TRY 27.49 trillion in 2024. Daily peaks reached 25 million payments on November 15, 2024. Forty-two institutions participate in FAST. The Retail Payment System processed 602.5 million transactions in 2024, a 22.4 percent decline from 2023 as low-value transfers continue migrating to FAST.

Turkey deployed RTGS in 1992, one of the earliest implementations in its region. The CBRT develops and operates all payment infrastructure in-house through a single interface called SWITCH over the private TICNET network. All banks operating in Turkey connect to EFT for large-value settlement. The Banking Payment System component handles wholesale transactions while the RPS processes retail clearing, with FAST serving the instant payment segment on a 24/7 basis.