Transaction speed in seconds is no longer an advantage, but a standard. But, according to the observation of fintech expert Artem Lyashanov, along with speed, business also receives a new set of risks that are rarely discussed in marketing materials. We have collected these risks in the form of a practical checklist.
Do you have a window in case of error
In traditional banking, there was a time period between sending a payment and its crediting, this is the opportunity to cancel the transfer if the amount or details were mixed up. In the world of Instant Payments, this window no longer exists: the money is legally transferred to the recipient in seconds.
What to check: Does your team have a separate protocol for double-checking details before sending a payment, and does not count on the ability to cancel it.
Is your fraud monitoring system keeping up with the speed of payments
Historically, most AML and fraud detection tools have been built on batch processing, meaning they analyze transactions in batches, with a certain delay. Instant Payments do not leave this delay.
According to the Capgemini World Payments Report 2025, only 13% of banks in Europe have a technological base that is reliable enough to fully work with instant payments. This means that even if your business is technologically ready, a gap may arise on the side of the partner bank.
What to check: does your bank or payment provider work with pre-transaction monitoring solutions, and not just post-facto analysis?
Is compliance ready for the new order of checks
Previously, AML/KYC checks could occur in parallel with payment processing. In the logic of instant transactions, they must be completed before its initiation, this is a change not only in the tools, but also in the order of internal processes.
An additional factor is the transition to the ISO 20022 standard, which requires each transaction to contain more structured data than before.
What to check: Are your internal compliance regulations adapted to a pre-transaction model of checks, rather than a post-fact model?
Can your ERP system withstand the error-free pace
In Ukraine, according to Artem Lyashanov, the introduction of instant payments (based on SEP-4.1) coincided with increased financial monitoring by the NBU. The practical consequence is that banks are massively implementing automatic blocking of atypical activity. This means that even a legitimate payment can “hang” in the queue for manual verification if it looks atypical for the system.
What to check: Is your ERP system generating payments without formatting errors and without sharp deviations from typical account activity that can automatically trigger blocking.
Do you have 24/7 visibility of your financial position
Before the mass introduction of instant payments, the concepts of banking day and weekends served as a kind of safeguard for financial services. Now, the movement of funds in the account is possible at any time of the day, including the night before Monday.
What to check: does your financial service have access to Real-time Treasury solutions integrated with banking APIs to see the current position of the company without delay in reporting.
Main conclusion
Artem Lyashanov summarizes: instant payments are not an accelerated version of the usual bank transfer, but a fundamentally different operating model. It requires not only an updated IT infrastructure, but also a restructuring of internal processes and a change in management thinking.
First of all, the attitude to speed itself. Not as a marketing advantage, but as a risk factor that needs to be consciously managed.
Source of statistical data: Capgemini World Payments Report 2025.
