Recital 25

(25) It is of critical importance that PSPs comply effectively with their obligations stemming from restrictive measures adopted by the Union in accordance with Article 215 TFEU in respect of a person, body or entity that is subject to an asset freeze or a prohibition on making funds or economic resources available to it, or for its benefit, either directly or indirectly (targeted financial restrictive measures). Union law, however, does not lay down rules on the procedure or tools to be used by PSPs to ensure their compliance with those obligations. PSPs thus apply various methods, based on their individual choice or on the guidance provided by the national authorities concerned. The practice of complying with obligations stemming from targeted financial restrictive measures by screening the payer and the payee involved in each credit transfer transaction, whether national or cross-border, leads to a very high number of credit transfers being flagged as potentially involving persons or entities subject to targeted financial restrictive measures. However, the large majority of such flagged transactions turn out, after verification, not to involve any of the persons or entities subject to targeted financial restrictive measures. Due to the nature of instant credit transfers, it is impossible for PSPs to verify, within the required short time limit, those flagged transactions and, as a result, they are rejected. That situation creates operational challenges for PSPs to offer the payment service of sending and receiving instant credit transfers to their PSUs across the Union in a reliable and predictable way. To provide for greater legal certainty, to increase the efficiency of PSPs’ efforts to comply, in the context of instant credit transfers in euro, with their obligations stemming from targeted financial restrictive measures and to prevent unnecessary hindering of sending and receiving instant credit transfers, PSPs should periodically, and at least daily, verify whether their PSUs are persons or entities subject to targeted financial restrictive measures, and should no longer apply transaction-based screening in that specific context. The obligation of PSPs to periodically verify their PSUs is related only to persons or entities subject to targeted financial restrictive measures. Other types of restrictive measures adopted in accordance with Article 215 TFEU or restrictive measures that are not adopted in accordance with Article 215 TFEU fall outside the scope of that obligation.

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Source: EUR-Lex CELLAR · retrieved 2026-08-27 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.