Prime Time for Real-Time 2022

Our yearly report looking at the growth and impact of real-time payments worldwide is now in its third edition — and more apt than ever.

Our yearly report looking at the growth and impact of real-time payments worldwide is now in its third edition — and more apt than ever.

Market forces and global events have combined to develop significant momentum around real-time payments, placing the organizations that enable them right at the heart of modern economies. It is undeniably prime time for real-time payments.

The numbers speak for themselves on the scale of the opportunities, both already realized and untapped. 118.3 billion real-time transactions were made globally in 2021, as measured by our partners at GlobalData, and 427.7 billion are expected by 2026 (which would be 25.6% of all global electronic payments). Meanwhile, research from our partners at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), and included here for the first time, shows a clear correlation between real-time payments and economic growth. Real-time payments helped generate an additional economic output of $78.4 billion in 2021 across the 30 countries included in the Cebr study. By 2026, this figure is set to rise to $173.0 billion across the same group of countries.

The evidence is clear: real-time payments improve overall market efficiencies and boost economic growth by allowing for the transfer of money between parties within seconds rather than days. However, the analysis barely hints at the story’s significance underlying much of this growth. An important driver of real-time payments adoption in recent years has been a series of unprecedented transformations to the daily lives of consumers and businesses. The transition to digital and real-time living, working and paying was already underway, but 2020 saw the COVID-19 pandemic accelerate adoption to new levels and there is no looking back.