It does exist, but it’s just taking a while for all banks to adopt it.

Most/all Dutch banks have adopted it already.

https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/what-we-do/sepa-insta...

In France banks charge a small fee for instant transfers (around €1). Some banks include free instant transfers in some of their offers, but usually not for their free accounts. I think it’s just a matter of time for it to become free and universal. Just like some banks use to make you pay to use their app or website (!).

That's great, thanks for the pointer.

I regularly transfer money between three European countries with instant payments, it works just fine but not all banks have implemented it.

Cybersecurity/trust issues? Can’t imagine a region wide inter bank network to be more technologically better protected than even Gmail.

>As far as I know there's nothing technically preventing this, anyone has an insight into why it isn't a thing?

Banks wanting to make more money?

Sort of, indirectly. The biggest incentive is not having to invest in the new infrastructure required to comply with the standards.