The Seimas accepted for consideration the proposals of the Ministry of Finance, which would facilitate payments | Business

The project envisages that payment and electronic money institutions can participate in payment systems directly without intermediaries – this will act as an alternative to using banking services. The ability to make instant payments will boost economic growth by increasing money flows and remittance efficiency, while providing consumers with faster and more reliable transactions.

“Money that reaches the accounts immediately, without additional waiting hours or days, is called instant payments. The Lithuanian payment market is one of the most advanced in Europe: more than half of the transfers in Lithuania are instant, while the EU average is 11 percent. The essence of the changes is that from 2025 April 9 all payments in Lithuania could be instant and consumers would have the opportunity to choose between them. This is another step towards our main goal in creating and submitting draft laws – to improve the quality of financial services for the people of Lithuania and their reliability,” says Finance Minister Gintarė Skaistė.

All payment service providers are required to provide instant credit transfers. Since Fintech companies will be able to directly participate in payment systems by providing instant credit transfer services, they will be required to have secure IT systems adapted for that purpose.

The requirements for those wishing to participate in the payment services market have been set. It is expected that in order to participate in payment systems, Fintech companies must submit a report and a conclusion from an audit firm or self-employed auditor to the operator of the payment system, which show how the company complies with the established requirements.

The draft laws aim to provide greater consumer protection in the event of insolvency of payment and electronic money institutions. These institutions will be required to prepare an outage plan, which will ensure that in the event of an outage, consumers experience minimal disruption and their funds are protected.

Payment service providers are also obliged to provide instant payment services for the same fee as for regular transfers. Therefore, users are provided with all the opportunities to conveniently use instant payment services.

The provisions of the regulation and directives of the European Parliament and the Council on instant credit transfers in euros are transposed into national law by the prepared proposals.