Instant Payments in Tunisia: Switching and Interoperability

Instant payments in Tunisia are a work in progress. Money can move in seconds between some mobile wallets, but most bank transfers still clear in batches, and the country has no national instant payment scheme like Brazil's Pix or Egypt's InstaPay. This article explains the current plumbing, who runs it and what the Banque Centrale de Tunisie (BCT) is studying.

A note on the premise: this topic is sometimes framed as if Tunisia already had a national instant payment system. As of October 2026, it does not. What exists is a set of separate rails, with real-time transfers limited mostly to the mobile wallet system.

Tunisia's payment plumbing today

Tunisian payments run on several systems, each with its own role:

• SIBTEL, the interbank clearing system (télécompensation), processes credit transfers, direct debits, cheques and bills of exchange in batches.
• RTGS Elyssa, operated by the BCT, settles large-value payments between banks in real time.
• The Société Monétique Tunisie (SMT) is the national card switch. It routes card payments between banks and runs ClicToPay, the banks' online payment platform. It also manages the national mobile payment system.

In the first half of 2026, SIBTEL handled 30.1 million operations worth about 109.6 billion dinars, according to the BCT's Payments Bulletin No. 17. RTGS Elyssa processed 218,886 transactions.

Instant payments in Tunisia: what exists

The closest thing to retail instant payment is the national mobile payment switch. In 2019, the SMT selected the Moroccan vendor HPS to build an interoperable mobile payment platform, with e-wallets managed in software-as-a-service mode. In June 2022, the BCT launched what it called the country's first mobile payment solution, with seven banks: BNA, BH Bank, Amen Bank, UBCI, Attijari Bank, Zitouna and BTE.

The system offered:

• transfers between wallets and payments to merchants by QR code or card terminal;
• 24/7 availability with instant movement of funds;
• wallets funded from bank accounts, cards, postal accounts or other wallets.

Fintechs plugged in through banks. BTE, for instance, launched its offer through the Flouci app in June 2022 as part of the national switch, promising transfers in under five seconds.

Usage has grown fast. Mobile transactions reached 8.4 million in 2025, up 81%, and 5.0 million in the first half of 2026. But that is small next to the 19.5 million credit transfers cleared through SIBTEL over the same half-year. See our overview of mobile payments in Tunisia.

The interoperability gap

Interoperability means a user of one wallet can pay or send money to a user of any other wallet or bank. In Tunisia it is incomplete for three reasons:

1. Not every issuer is on the same rail. Banks, La Poste and payment institutions issue wallets, and licensed fintechs depend on partner institutions.
2. Cards still dominate digital payments. In the first half of 2026, Tunisians made 85.4 million card operations, far more than mobile transactions.
3. Branding was fragmented. The BCT's TUNPAY label, announced in May 2026 with the SMT, gives all mobile wallets a common identity, but it is a visual standard, not a technical one.

One banking-law expert interviewed by La Presse in May 2026 warned that if access to TUNPAY requires mandatory membership of the SMT system, it could become a barrier for independent fintechs.

Why the BCT is looking at Pix

In 2026, a delegation from the BCT, accompanied by the German development agency GIZ, visited the Banco Central do Brasil to study Pix. Over two days of technical sessions, the delegation examined Pix's architecture, governance, regulation and economic model, and met Nubank, Itaú Unibanco, PicPay and the fintech association ABFintechs.

Pix is shared infrastructure owned and run by Brazil's central bank. It allows account-to-account transfers 24/7 through any bank or payment app and is free for individuals. L'Economiste Maghrébin stressed that no decision to adopt a similar system has been announced and that nothing yet indicates Tunisia is preparing one.

Comparisons are close by. Egypt launched InstaPay in 2022; see our article on Egypt's fintech boom.

What it means for founders

For Tunisian fintechs, the current setup has practical consequences:

• Access goes through banks or the SMT. Without a payment institution licence, startups reach the rails only via a partner bank.
• Account-to-account payments are not yet a product. Without a Pix-style system or open banking APIs, startups cannot build cheap bank-to-bank payment flows.
• Cheques remain a competitor. Cheque clearing grew 11.4% in number in H1 2026.

What to watch

The signals to follow in 2027 are a BCT announcement on an instant payment project, the rules for SMT access under TUNPAY, and any move to open the mobile switch to licensed payment institutions on equal terms. Until then, "instant" in Tunisia mostly means wallet-to-wallet. Figures here are as of mid-2026.