Report predicts rampant growth in real-time payments

Real-time payments and account-to-account payments volume are predicted to reach a Compound Annual Growth rate (CAGR) of 23.4% from 2019 to 2024, according to a report by ACI Worldwide. The report, which was compiled before the coronavirus pandemic, analyses 30 global markets and studies each country profile with respect to its payments methods and schemes.

In a statement to CPI about the ongoing relevance of the study, ACI Worldwide said, “We are experiencing an unprecedented event with the Covid-19 crisis. But one of the trends we are all recognising is the desire for contactless, remote payments, and immediate access to liquidity. Once the crisis is over, we can expect to see more consumers and businesses continuing to use real-time payments, as well as an expansion of new use cases and overlay services that will also leverage the real-time rails”.

The report highlights five strongest indicators of a market’s real-time payments success:

Centrally Driven Payments Modernization Initiatives – Under this the government or collaborative stakeholders are needed to back a countrywide change. Such as in the case of India, Nigeria and Malaysia.

Seamless and Integrated Payments Experience with Rich Overlay Services – The end-user wants convenience and report highlights that real-time growth is strong where access to easy-to-use payments types exist for both businesses and consumers.

Connected Ecosystem of Players Enriching User Experience – The market needs to have a broad ecosystem with wide acceptance and combined with the convenience of overlay services and strong functionality.

Digital Payments Maturity Level and Ingrained Payment Habits – The market with reliance on paper-based payments such as cash and cheque. The real-time payments system can provide a great alternative. When this is backed by the government, the adoption can be significantly high.

Openness to Alternative Payment Methods – The adoption rate is high when overlay services are offered along with high integration with other modes of online payments.

The report states that a national system or an individual country does not need all of the above-stated indicators to boost the real-time payments but a combination of two or more is enough to drive the initial growth. Other findings of the report said that India is poised to grow its real-time payments from 15.3 billion transactions in 2019 to 52.8 billion transactions in 2024. Countries such as Malaysia, Finland and Belgium are predicted to have growth CAGR of 176.5 per cent, 90 per cent and 67.9 per cent, respectively.