Instant credit transfers

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Instant credit transfers

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Find answers to frequently asked questions about instant credit transfers below.

Instant credit transfers are carried out and processed immediately. If you are a payee, this means you receive your money in seconds and the amount in question appears on your account right away.

They can be made 24/7, including at night and weekends and on public and bank holidays.

Instant credit transfers are only available through banks participating in this scheme. Sixteen Belgian banks took part in its launch, making some 90% of current accounts in Belgium available for the service. This percentage varies from country to country (depending on the number of countries participating in the scheme). Even more banks will offer this service going forward.

You expect a real-time view of your incoming and outgoing payments, the balance of your accounts and your available working capital. So, the faster transfers are processed, the more accurate that view will be.

If you have an account with us in Belgium, you can use it to receive and send individual credit transfers. This is not available for batched payments for the time being.

Our Business Dashboard, Online for Business, Reach and KBC Business apps all let you send instant credit transfers. However, the only way to make instant transfers from KBC accounts held abroad is by using Reach.

We process your SEPA credit transfers instantly wherever possible. This means that the money will appear on the payee’s account right away. If the service isn’t available like when the receiving bank hasn’t yet joined the scheme, the money will still be credited to the payee’s account on the same day, provided the transfer is registered before 4 p.m.*

* A transfer order is only fully submitted to us once you’ve signed and sent it to us correctly, we’ve received it and the amount can be debited from the account (on any weekday apart from 1 January, Good Friday, Easter Monday, 1 May, and 25 and 26 December).

Opt for ‘Instant only’ (only available for payments made from accounts with us in Belgium). If instant processing isn’t possible, your transfer won’t be made and you’ll receive a notification.

You can make and receive individual payments instantly 24/7/365, making the money available to you or the payee in seconds.

You don’t have to do anything to get the fastest service, which we give you as standard where possible.

You can receive and send instant transfers from and to Belgian and other European banks. Find out which banks are connected to Instant Payments.

Yes. You can do so using KBC Reach.

We don’t charge anything extra for this service.

There is no general payment limit for instant credit transfers between banks in Belgium. Instant credit transfers between banks in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) are limited to 100 000 euros per transaction (as of 1 July 2020), unless the banks concerned agree not to apply the limit.

Participating banks can set their own limits for their customers. Our limit for outgoing instant credit transfers is 1 000 000 euros. Higher amounts will still be credited to the payee’s account on the same day, provided the transfer is registered before 4 p.m.*

Our standard limit using our Business app still applies.

* A transfer order is only fully submitted to us once you’ve signed and sent it to us correctly, we’ve received it and the amount can be debited from the account (on any weekday apart from 1 January, Good Friday, Easter Monday, 1 May, and 25 and 26 December).

Instant credit transfers can be made on any calendar day. We help you keep your bookkeeping updated by giving you daily reports at no extra charge.

That includes at weekends and on public and bank holidays, and applies to all report-related services offered, i.e.:

  • CODA
  • SWIFT MT94x
  • CAMT.05x
  • Isabel

Your e-output remains unchanged. You will continue to receive your account statements in CODA, CAMT or MT format.

Participating KBC accounts in Belgium are zero-balanced every calendar day, including at weekends and on public and bank holidays.

Nothing changes for KBC accounts held abroad, i.e. participating accounts are only zero-balanced on business days.

We only process individual transfers as instant credit transfers. Batched payments are not processed as instant credit transfers, even though your accounting software may be telling you differently.

We’re unable to process all SEPA credit transfers instantly. You can still opt for standard processing or pay for priority processing.

That includes:

  • Payments from accounts held with other banks
  • Scheduled payments
  • Payments via Isabel, Swift for Corporates and Transfer
  • Batch entries and batched payments
  • Requests For Transfer (RFTs)

Instant payments that cannot be given priority processing will be processed automatically as urgent payments.

Batched payments are not processed instantly, though we do process batched payments from Belgian KBC accounts faster:

  • What happens if I submit a batched payment order before 2.30 p.m.?*
    Your batched payments will appear on the payee’s account the same day without needing to ask for urgent processing.

  • What if, after 2.30 p.m., I want batched payments to be made to the payee’s bank on the same day? (on weekdays**)
    This is only possible for files with a maximum of 1 transaction and until 4 p.m. at the latest. Opt to pay for urgent processing.

* A transfer order is only fully submitted to us once you’ve signed and sent it to us correctly, we’ve received it and the amount can be debited from the account (on any weekday apart from 1 January, Good Friday, Easter Monday, 1 May, and 25 and 26 December).
** Every weekday apart from 1 January, Good Friday, Easter Monday, 1 May, and 25 and 26 December.

Learn more about instant credit transfers

Find out more about instant transfers on the website of the European Payments Council.

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