If you are referring to SEPA Instant, thats not true: It started operating in 2017, though not many participants back then. What happened last year/this year, is, thats its mandatory for banks to offer it across the EU.

I'm talking about Canada, which started formally planning this in 2016.

The US federal government also released their own version of this in 2023 (US FedNow).

It's been an obvious next step for a while now.