SEPA is actually what we had so far. That is how the employer sends you the money. That’s how you pay rent. That’s how you pay off debts. That’s how your insurances take money from you.
SEPA instant payments is what’s new and it allows to transfer money to someone in under 15 seconds. It existed for a few years, but usually cost money and was not even available for all banks. That’s changing now. Step 1 is making it free and force all banks to offer it. Step 2 will be replacing the old, slower system with it completely.
The 15 seconds are more like a maximum. It’s usually faster. Taking out you phone and maybe entering the phone PIN, opening the banking app and entering a PIN for that takes some time, too.
The advantage that Paypal still has: It’s like a social network. People are connected and it might be easier to use it instead of first asking people for their IBAN code to send the money…