Greece is overhauling the infrastructure that underpins its interbank payment system, introducing new capabilities designed to speed up international euro transfers, automate banks’ liquidity management and reshape the pricing model for participating financial institutions.
The changes, adopted by the Bank of Greece through a new regulatory decision governing TARGET-GR, affect the country’s link to the broader European TARGET network—the payment system operated by the Eurosystem that settles billions of euros in transactions between banks and financial institutions every day. While largely technical in nature, the reforms are intended to modernize the plumbing of the banking system and improve the efficiency of cross-border payments.
At the center of the overhaul is the introduction of the One-Leg Out Instant Credit Transfer (OCT Inst) scheme, which significantly expands the reach of instant payments. Until now, TARGET-GR primarily supported real-time transfers within the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), the framework that enables standardized euro payments across participating European countries.
The new arrangement will allow instant euro transfers even when one party to the transaction is located outside the SEPA zone, opening the door to faster cross-border payments that extend beyond Europe’s traditional payments network. The move reflects broader efforts across the financial sector to make international transfers as seamless and immediate as domestic ones.
The regulation also introduces automated liquidity management tools that will enable banks to maintain predefined minimum and maximum balances in their settlement accounts. If funds fall below or exceed those thresholds, the system will automatically move money between accounts to restore the desired balance without human intervention. The mechanism is expected to improve daily cash management for financial institutions while reducing the risk of payment bottlenecks.
The reforms also include a new fee structure for participating banks beginning July 1, 2026. Institutions will be able to choose between a lower fixed-cost model that charges a monthly subscription of €400 plus €0.80 for each payment instruction, or a higher fixed-fee option costing €5,000 per month with substantially lower transaction charges that decline as payment volumes increase.
Under the second model, fees start at €0.60 per transaction for up to 10,000 monthly payments and fall progressively to as little as €0.05 for institutions processing more than 300,000 transactions a month.
The pricing structure favors large banks and payment providers with significant volumes by lowering the marginal cost of each additional transaction.
For instant payments settled through the Eurosystem’s TIPS platform, fees remain exceptionally low at €0.001 per accepted transaction. The charge applies to both the sending and receiving accounts and also covers cases in which a payment recall request is successfully processed.
Some provisions entered into force upon publication of the decision in Greece’s official government gazette, but most of the technical changes—including the full rollout of the OCT Inst functionality and other operational upgrades—will become effective on November 14, 2026.
The reforms are aimed exclusively at the back-end infrastructure used by banks to settle payments with one another. They do not introduce new fees for consumers or alter the way households and businesses access everyday banking services.
