EU Proposes to Harmonize Sanctions Screening for Instant Payments

The European Commission on Oct. 26 took up a legislative proposal to make instant payment in euros available to all individuals and entities with a bank account in the EU and European Economic Area countries. The move would harmonize the sanctions screening procedure for all instant payment providers. These providers would not carry out transaction-based sanctions screening and instead revert to verification of whether their clients are sanctioned individuals or entities on a daily basis and when the sanctions lists are amended. If a provider fails to conduct the verifications on a timely basis and causes another provider involved in the same transfer to violate the screening regulations, the affected provider will be compensated by the offending provider for non-compliance penalties.