Two Lithuanian commercial banks - SEB and "Swedbank" - joins the common instant payment system and intends to introduce some of the innovations already this year, writes "Verslo žinios". At that time, Luminor does not yet know a specific date when instant payments will be offered.
"There are currently intensive negotiations between banks to create a mobile payment infrastructure that will allow payments to be made knowing only the recipient's phone number. Thus, the first stage is the introduction of instant payments, the second will be the creation of a common system for their processing", said Vaidas Žagūnis, Deputy President of SEB Bank.
Bank representatives say that each user's mobile phone number will be linked to the IBAN number of their bank account. The system will likely be such that each person's contact will have a special symbol on the bank's mobile app they use, indicating that money can be transferred to the person without knowing their account number.
BNS reminds that the Bank of Lithuania made it possible to provide instant payments in the country last October, after signing a memorandum with the country's three largest banks - SEB, Luminor and Swedbank.
Instant payments between banks in the European Economic Area (EEA) became possible at the end of 2017, after the creation of a mutual netting system for instant payments managed by the European Banking Association.
