Innovation in Instant Payments

Innovation in Instant Payments

Summary

Instant payments are an innovative payment infrastructure that modernizes payment systems and enables transactions to be settled within 60 seconds. Although it is a natural alternative to card payments, its impact on payment card markets varies per region. In Asia, mobile wallets are built directly on instant payments infrastructure, which makes them more suited for retail transactions. This approach has led to rapid adoption of the technology by both merchants and consumers. In Western countries, instant payments are only available through banking apps, which limits their usage to account-to-account transactions. Countries that have a well-established instant payment infrastructure are now focusing on driving the interoperability of their platforms with other countries.

In this report, through various case studies we explore domestic instant payment platforms across a number of countries. We also explore developments in terms of cross-border instant payment interoperability, including the benefits and challenges of establishing such links.

Scope

• Southeast Asian countries are leading the way in terms of adoption of instant payment platforms.
• India boasts the largest volume of instant payment transactions in the world, reaching 39.8 billion in 2021.
• Brazil’s instant payment platform PIX has been used by more than 115 million users since its launch in November 2020.

• Understand the advantages and challenges of instant payment adoption.
• Identify the key players in the space.
• Learn about the different approaches to instant cross-border payments.