With the October 2025 deadline looming for real-time payment compliance in Europe, banks are racing against the clock—and Broadridge Financial Solutions appears to be out in front. The fintech heavyweight has announced strong market adoption of its instant payment connectivity and processing solution, aimed squarely at helping financial institutions meet new EU regulations with speed and confidence.

And speed, it turns out, is where Broadridge is making its mark.

Since launching its instant payment service in late 2024, the company has onboarded seven clients in just five months—a timeline that outpaces industry norms. Its key advantage? Pre-integrated workflows, SwiftNet Instant connectivity, and full support for ECB’s Target Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) system, all bundled into a high-resilience infrastructure designed for zero downtime and continuous processing.

Real-Time Payments Go From Nice-to-Have to Legal Mandate

The European Commission’s upcoming mandate requires banks to support real-time euro payments by October 2025, transforming what was once a competitive differentiator into a baseline regulatory requirement. The rule change has shifted banks’ attention from experimental instant payments pilots to enterprise-scale execution, and many are now seeking plug-and-play solutions to reduce risk and cost.

“Financial institutions are actively looking for scalable and cost-efficient solutions that ensure seamless compliance and real-time payment readiness,” said Kai Marzenell, Director of Swift Product Management at Broadridge. “Our solution not only minimizes onboarding complexity but also offers a significant cost advantage.”

In partnership with core banking providers like CPB SOFTWARE and payment application vendors like Foconis, Broadridge has carved out an accelerated deployment model that beats traditional integration timelines—cutting down implementation from the typical six months or more to just a few months for multiple banks simultaneously.

“Speed of onboarding was a game-changer,” said Christian Wust, Managing Director at CPB SOFTWARE. “Broadridge helped our clients go live in just five months.”

Built for a 24/7, Zero-Downtime Future

What sets Broadridge apart is its infrastructure, which features “active-active” failover across two data centers. This means real-time transactions aren’t just fast—they’re always available. Banks can simulate and pre-test failover scenarios in live environments, drastically improving resilience and minimizing service disruption risk.

The platform is capable of processing transactions in under 10 seconds, and Broadridge’s instructing party model—developed in collaboration with the ECB—streamlines compliance while slashing operational costs. That’s a big win for mid-tier and regional banks that may lack the IT firepower of their Tier 1 peers.

And as the payments landscape evolves, Broadridge is building for more than just today’s transactions. The infrastructure is future-ready, designed to support high-volume, all-payment-type transitions to real-time models.

The Bigger Picture: Instant Payments Go Mainstream

The push for instant payments in Europe mirrors a broader global trend, with regions from Brazil (via Pix) to India (via UPI) setting the pace. In Europe, however, the regulatory push is adding urgency. For legacy banks, the question isn’t whether to offer real-time payments—it’s how fast they can get there without breaking the bank or their backend systems.

Broadridge, with its API-ready, cloud-scalable infrastructure, is clearly betting that banks want speed and safety in equal measure.

“Our clients now have the tools to integrate real-time payments efficiently and navigate the evolving regulatory landscape with confidence,” said Heidi Dittmar, Managing Director of Swift Services at Broadridge.

And with 2025 fast approaching, confidence may be the most valuable currency of all.