ACI Worldwide, the payments system company, and GlobalData, the data and analytics firm have worked together on a new report revealing which real-time payments markets across the world are the most successful.

In its fifth iteration, the 2024 Prime Time for Real-Time report takes a different approach from its predecessors. Previous reports by ACI Worldwide and GlobalData have looked at economic benefits and consumer uptake of real-time payments. However, this one delves into the driving factors and use cases that have allowed certain regions and countries to develop a thriving real-time payment ecosystem.

The report is aptly timed as global real-time payments growth has reached sustainable levels with 266.2 billion real-time payments transactions recorded in 2023. This was a year-over-year (YoY) growth of 42.2 per cent. Explaining the reasons behind this growth, the report explores how newer market entrants are catching up in the space.

It also identifies how lawmakers and central banks are pushing for adoption, determined to reap the economic benefits of real-time payments and drive financial inclusion for their citizens.

Looking to the future, ACI Worldwide and GlobalData find that Globally, 575.1 billion real-time transactions are forecast by 2028. This represents a 2023-2028 compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.7 per cent. By 2028, real-time payments are expected to account for 27.1 per cent of all electronic payments globally.

India, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Netherlands are the primary countries analysed in the report.

“Real-time payments—and especially cross-border payments—are the future. They remove payments friction, provide greater liquidity in the financial system, and ultimately drive economic growth and financial inclusion,” said Debbie Guerra, chief product officer, ACI Worldwide.

“Banks should consider whether they are truly maximising the real-time rails in their market, and whether limiting their commitment to the minimum also means limiting their potential share of the future of payments.”

Regional differences

India continues to dominate the global real-time payments market. In 2023, there were 129.3 billion transactions – more than the rest of the world’s top 10 real-time payments markets combined. Of all electronic payments made in India, 84 per cent are now real-time.

Meanwhile, in Brazil, 37.4 billion real-time payments transactions took place in 2023. This was YoY growth of 77.9 per cent. The country is responsible for 75 per cent of all transactions in Latin America (LatAm), establishing itself as the undisputed real-time payments leader.

Nonetheless, other Latin American countries are pushing ahead with real-time payments modernisation initiatives. Peru and Colombia are predicted to have the highest 2023-2028 CAGRs in the region. Respectively they are estimated to have growth rates of 51.2 per cent and 42.6 per cent as look to emulate Brazil’s success.

Nigeria is the undisputed real-time payments leader in Africa, another major growth market. The country recorded 7.9 billion transactions in 2023; real-time payments had an impressive 82.1 per cent share of all electronic payments in 2023.

“This year’s report highlights the key success factors that have allowed some countries to forge ahead with real-time payments modernisation and reap enormous benefits for consumers and businesses,” said Craig Ramsey, global head of real-time payments, ACI Worldwide.

He continued: “Modern real-time payments require collaboration. They encourage a new generation of market entrants for banks to either compete or cooperate with – often both. The world’s most successful real-time payments schemes, notably those in India and Brazil, also feature use cases that have proved popular beyond imagination.”

The bigger picture

While certain countries are leading the way in the real-time payments market, regionally, Asia Pacific (APAC) is the largest ecosystem. It had 185.8 billion transactions in 2023, representing 24.0 per cent of all electronic payments in the region. With four of the top five real-time payments markets by volume, the APAC region is projected to see over 351.5 billion real-time transactions by 2028. This is a 2023-2028 CAGR of 13.6 per cent.

The Middle East is the fastest-growing real-time payments market globally. Oman, Kuwait and Qatar all launched schemes in 2023. Consequently, they joined more established regional players like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and UAE. The 2023-2028 CAGR for the region is 28.8 per cent – transactions are expected to rise from 855 million to 3.0 billion by 2028.

The European Union (EU) Instant Payments Regulation, passed in February 2024, is expected to drive instant payments volume across the Single Euro Payments Area. This also includes the 27 EU member states. By 2028, instant payments are forecast to account for 13 per cent of all electronic payments in Europe, up fro eight per cent in 2023.

North America is a major growth market to watch—primarily due to the launch of the FedNow service in the US in 2023—with a projected 2023-2028 CAGR of 27.1 per cent.

Market deep-dives: Lessons from the most successful real-time payments markets

The power of collaboration

Whether by government mandate or industry consensus, real-time payments systems thrive through active collaboration. Financial institutions, payment service providers, central banks and government institutions, merchants and third-party stakeholders must work together to build and operate successful real-time payments ecosystems.

Open and inclusive payments ecosystems

The most successful real-time payments markets are fostering fintech-rich environments. The research shows that fintechs and smaller banks play an increasingly significant role in the real-time payment ecosystems of the world’s leading markets. Therefore, larger banks will need to reevaluate strategies and forge new partnerships with fintechs to remain competitive.

Strong incentives for merchants

Merchant adoption and uptake are crucial for real-time payments growth. The Indian government, for example, removed merchant discount rates and issued all merchants with QR codes for UPI acceptance. Consequently, this actively incentivised merchants of all sizes to accept UPI payments.

Constant flow of new, user-friendly use cases

Real-time payments thrive in countries where innovative use cases have found mass adoption by consumers or businesses. Whether utility or tax bills, transport tickets or road tolls, subscription payments, or the weekly grocery shop, consumers in the most successful markets are now paying in real-time.

Cross-border real-time payments links are the next big frontier

Efforts to extend real-time to cross-border payments are finally paying off, and Asian countries are leading the way. Payments using India’s popular UPI scheme can now be made in Malaysia, Indonesia, UAE and France, and users of Malaysia’s DuitNow can now make QR code real-time payments from Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and China.

Real-time payments fraud

Generative AI is changing the nature and scale of fraud attacks, but the industry is rising to the challenge. Consumer rights initiatives, education programs and government interventions—combined with new AI-based anti-fraud technology and methods—are starting to make an impact.

OpenPayd, the global payments and banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform has teamed up with TrueLayer to enhance its instant payment solutions, enabling secure account-to-account payments across the UK and Europe.

The collaboration aims to improve user experience as well as increase conversion rates for real-time fund deposits. This move also reflects the growing adoption of open banking and innovation in payment services.

OpenPayd will leverage TrueLayer’s payments network throughout the UK and Europe to enable secure and instant account-to-account (A2A) payments for its global client base. OpenPayd’s clients can offer pay-by-bank functionality seamlessly integrated into their payment infrastructure through the OpenPayd API integration.

By enabling this functionality, their underlying customers can also initiate payments and authenticate the payment directly via their banking app.

Barry O’Sullivan, head of banking and payments infrastructure at OpenPayd, said: “Our partnership with TrueLayer marks an important step in OpenPayd’s growth strategy. We’re building a payments platform to give our clients access to any payment rail they need, where they need it. This collaboration is the next step in delivering fast, user-friendly payment journeys to our clients and their underlying users.”

While Mariko Beising, VP financial services and partnerships at TrueLayer, also added: “At TrueLayer, we firmly believe that the future of payments is built on open banking. It enables the development of new solutions in payment services that foster growth, innovation and provide better solutions for consumers and businesses. We’re excited to collaborate with OpenPayd to deliver better payment experiences to its clients.”

Over one in nine Brits now use open banking services, as well as 17 per cent of small businesses. The rapid rise in adoption is testament to the power of open banking technology to empower innovation, increase productivity, create efficiencies, as well as reduce costs.

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) has launched a new tool providing real-time data and educational resources on digital money with an initial focus on stablecoins.

The stablecoin market has surged from less than $3billion in 2019 to more than $130billion in 2024. This rapid expansion has been accompanied by several market events that have caused major depegs in various stablecoins, prompting a heightened effort towards regulation and supervision.

Catering to policymakers, financial professionals, as well as the general public, the ‘Cambridge Digital Money Dashboard’ offers insights into stablecoin adoption, risks, regulatory frameworks and more.

In its first release, the Cambridge Digital Money Dashboard – an open-access digital tool – covers the most prominent stablecoins that together constitute approximately 95 per cent of the overall stablecoin market cap. The data is updated regularly (hourly or daily via API) and is scalable, with future updates to include expanded data on primary use cases of stablecoins and geography-related datasets.

It enables users to discover some of the foundational adoption metrics such as aggregate stablecoin supply and value of transfers over time. The addition of velocity metrics also helps users identify changes in stablecoin usage patterns during important market events, further highlighting stablecoin holders’ preferences during times of turmoil.

Future releases will also include a context and comparisons section to provide the general public and financial professionals with easy-to-understand analogies to traditional finance, as well as a deep dive into the use cases of stablecoins.

Shedding light

Bryan Zhang, co-founder and executive director of the CCAF, said: “With the incredible growth and increasing adoption of stablecoins as well as the rapid development in CBDCs, tokenised bank deposits and cryptoassets, the landscape of digital money is changing before our eyes.

“The Cambridge Digital Money Dashboard aims to shed a light on that evolving, complex and fluid landscape, and underscores our continued efforts to inform evidence-based decision-making by leveraging the power of empirical data and collaborative research.”

The empirical data for the dashboard is sourced from various providers – including Lukka, Coinmetrics and Glassnode – as well as open sources, such as stablecoin issuer websites and legislative documents in select jurisdictions.

The Cambridge Digital Money Dashboard is a research output of the Cambridge Digital Assets Programme, a multi-year research initiative hosted by the CCAF in collaboration with 18 prominent public and private institutions.  CCAF is part of the Cambridge Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge.

CDAP’s founding institutional collaborators include Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub, British International Investment (BII), Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC), EY, Fidelity Investments, UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Goldman Sachs, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Invesco, Mastercard, MSCI, Visa and World Bank. Four new members have recently joined the effort: NatWest, Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Euroclear and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC).

Amarjit Singh, EY EMEIA Assurance blockchain leader, comments: “At the time when the Bank of England and the FCA are consulting on stablecoins, it is great to have a tool that helps all stakeholders in the ecosystem understand, learn and also reflect on the data that is available on digital money.”

Global real-time payments platform Volt has forged a partnership with embedded sustainability fintech company ekko to empower consumers and retailers in the battle against ocean plastic pollution.

Through this collaboration, ekko stands to gain significant advantages by integrating into Volt’s global real-time payments network, connecting with transactions spanning the UK, Europe, and Brazil.

When consumers select Volt as their payment method at the checkout, they have the opportunity to take an active role in removing a plastic bottle from the ocean before witnessing a real-time counter tracking the number of bottles removed.

The counter increments immediately upon completing the payment, showcasing the immediate environmental impact and enabling merchants to illustrate their commitment to sustainability.

Jordan Lawrence, chief growth officer and co-founder of Volt, said: “I am incredibly excited by what this partnership will bring. The environment is very close to my and Volt’s heart, and solutions like ekko’s help to make the real difference that we believe our sector should strive to do.

“Combining real-time payments with real-time environmental capabilities is the perfect marriage; I’m thrilled for Volt users to gain an accurate representation of the difference they’re making to the planet.”

While, Oli Cook, CEO and co-founder of ekko, also added: “We have an incredible role to play in fighting the climate crisis, as financial services impact nearly everything we do. We have an opportunity to mobilise people and businesses from every walk of life to do good and to make environmentally friendly choices.

“Working with Volt allows us to expand the horizons of our offering, reaching customers across the world and ultimately increasing support for environmental causes by bringing our real-time tracking capabilities to payments worldwide.”

Cleafy, a fraud prevention, cybersecurity expert, data scientist, and software engineer team, has launched new technology to proactively classify, detect and respond to new malware variants in real-time, to tackle an issue presenting growing levels of threat. 

Cleafy explained that new malware variants often go undetected by traditional security measures, allowing cybercriminals to exploit vulnerabilities and launch attacks that go undetected. These variants are distributed through various channels, including email attachments, compromised websites, and phishing attempts.

The new product update comes as a result of a recent cash injection powered by Italian blue-chip VC, United Ventures and is the first in a series of feature launches planned in the coming months.

Cleafy can now detect malware in real-time and classify new malware variants within seconds, dramatically accelerating the traditional weeks-to-months-long process. Cleafy’s platform detects and combines signals within mobile and web applications or on the device ecosystem and network, offering complete visibility into digital channels.

Once a new malware variant is classified, the newly isolated malware signature is immediately propagated to all instances of the Cleafy platform across its entire network. The continuous matching capability, a crucial part of this new product release, ensures that all Cleafy customers can detect the new malware variant in real-time, without the need for time-consuming retro-matching activities.

‘Built with banking ecosystems in mind’

Current estimates put industrial cybersecurity spending at $20billion per year and growing. As machinery gets connected to networks, the potential points of failure drastically increase. However, new online banking and fintech solutions are often left in the dark.

Matteo Bogana, CEO at Cleafy, said: “We’re excited about today’s launch. When it comes to new threat detection and classification, real-time AI capabilities can be game-changing.

“Hiring industrial cybersecurity specialists is hard; the Cleafy platform was built with banking ecosystems in mind, and enables your existing team to watch over these critical environments while preserving uptime, reliability and user experience.”

Cleafy’s real-time AI mechanisms provide a swift response to new malware variants, enabling banks to protect their customers automatically without disrupting the service. Furthermore, the solution equips analysts with the necessary information to understand the nature and capabilities of the detected malware, along with off-the-shelf suggestions for response rules to maintain an optimal security posture.

Cleafy’s AI technology was trained on eight years of malware telemetry data. The years of collected data provide Cleafy with a deep understanding of malicious behaviours, enabling it to stay ahead of emerging threats and provide robust proactive cybersecurity solutions.

Fintech company Volt expands its real-time payments platform into Australia with a $60million Series B funding round. Partnering with Australian digital payment platform PayTo, Volt aims to offer secure, fast, and seamless payment options to consumers and businesses.

The move aligns with Australia’s growing appetite for innovative payment methods, and Megatix Events becomes the first Australian merchant to integrate Volt’s technology, improving payment efficiency.

Volt, established across the UK and Europe in 2019, further expanded its global footprint by entering the South American market via Brazil in 2021.

With a network of more than 5,000 banks, Australia represents a significant milestone for Volt and the account-to-account (A2A) payments industry. Volt’s gateway will be integrated with PayTo, an Australian digital payment platform that enables consumers to authorise and control payments directly from their bank account.

Key market

A recent report from Cognizant found that Australia is the second leading market in the adoption of new payments technology, following China with Juniper Research reporting the value of open banking payments will reach $330billion globally by 2027.

“I am incredibly excited to finally introduce our technology to the Australian market and begin our journey into the APAC region,” said Tom Greenwood, founder and CEO of Volt. “Our goal at Volt is to revolutionise the payments sector and create a solution that significantly benefits not only merchants who use our technology but their customers as well.

“Australia is fast becoming a key market for many global businesses and similarly to Brazil when we launched there, our introduction into this fast-growing market will be transformative to the payments space.”

Roshan Odhavji, CEO of Megatix, also added: “Our goal is to be at the forefront when it comes to creating an innovative ticketing platform and we have found the perfect payment technology partner in Volt to do just that. With Volt’s industry leading real-time payment capabilities, we’re now able to offer our customers a slick checkout experience, and be the first in the market to do so.

“Thanks to open banking and Volt’s technology, we’re able to improve the payments process immeasurably for our customers, such as eliminating costly chargebacks associated with payments which have been a historic pain point for our vendors.”

Volt will also establish a physical presence in Australia, while making a number of significant hires to manage and grow the Australian market.

 

Apple Pay has introduced an update for its UK users by integrating with open banking, enabling them to seamlessly connect their accounts with eligible debit and credit cards in their Wallet app.

This integration empowers users with the ability to access important financial information, such as their current debit card balance, in real-time at the moment of making a purchase.

Apple has worked with banks to make the feature available to multiple financial institutions in the UK, including Barclays, Barclaycard, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds, M&S Bank, Monzo, NatWest, and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, commented: “By enabling users to conveniently access their most useful account information within Wallet and at the time of their purchase, they can make informed financial decisions and better understand and manage their spend.

“We look forward to working with UK partners under the open banking initiative to help users better their financial health, and provide more ways in which banks can deepen their relationships with customers.”

Apple Pay made its debut in 2014, first hitting the US market before extending its reach to the UK in 2015. Presently, consumers in more than 70 global markets relish a seamless, secure, and confidential payment method, leveraging their cherished credit and debit card brands.

Following the update, users can view their up-to-date debit card balance in Wallet and when they’re checking out with Apple Pay online or in-apps. As users make a purchase, they can see what’s in their debit card balance to determine if and how it fits into their budget and spend.

Additionally, users can view their debit card account details, as well as debit and credit card spending history, payments, deposits, and withdrawals, in one place in Wallet.

PayPlan, a leading provider of free debt advice in the UK, hopes to significantly enhance its customer support via a new partnership with LanguageLine Solutions, the interpretation, translation, and localisation service provider, to offer real-time interpreting in up to 240 different languages.

PayPlan explained that it hopes the interpreting partnership makes its free debt advice much more accessible to customers who previously faced language barriers. The move also aligns with PayPlan’s commitment to its Consumer Duty responsibilities, which aim to ensure better outcomes for consumers across financial services.

The introduction of LanguageLine, the largest interpretation services provider in the world, follows PayPlan’s rollout of the British Sign Language (BSL) Video Interpreting Service, SignVideo, earlier this year.

PayPlan has also become the first UK debt advice company to provide access to this service – simultaneously setting a new benchmark for the industry.

Peter Munro, partnerships director at PayPlan, explained the decision to partner with LanguageLine Solutions: “We’re continuing to experience record demand for our debt advice, and LanguageLine is perfectly equipped to facilitate clear communication in languages our customers understand while ensuring compliance with regulations.

“More importantly, our new partnership will allow us to deliver good outcomes for customers who previously had limited access to free debt advice.”

PayPlan currently helps over 100,000 clients each year; offering FCA-regulated advice and support to anyone struggling with their finances – alongside tailored and sustainable solutions.

Vanessa Eke, managing director of LanguageLine Solutions UK, said: “We understand that conversations around debt advice may have a profound effect on people’s lives, and so clarity and understanding are vital.

“Language barriers ordinarily present a potential obstacle to this, but LanguageLine’s on-demand interpreting services provide an instant channel for information sharing and advice, at any time of the day or night, meaning that everybody receives the same level of service.”

Finastra, a global provider of financial software applications and marketplaces, has launched its new payment solution, Finastra Compliance as a Service on Microsoft Azure.

The service includes Fincom‘s real-time AML (anti-money laundering) transaction screening and ThetaRay‘s AI-powered transaction monitoring as a pre-integrated packaged solution with Finastra Payments To Go. The end-to-end solution enables US and European banks to streamline and automate compliance processes to effectively deliver instant payments. The service will soon be integrated with Finastra Global PAYplus.

“The introduction of any new payment rail brings new risks, and especially when that rail operates in real-time,” said Mike Vigue, chief product officer, payments at Finastra. “We are building on the success of Payments To Go for instant payments by providing accurate and efficient compliance capabilities at a reduced total cost of ownership.

“By pre-integrating Fincom and ThetaRay with our solutions, our customers will reduce the time and risks of launching instant payment services. All the while, they will benefit from a new level of security, scalability and flexibility. Finastra is committed to helping banks keep pace with customer, industry and regulatory demands through payment innovation. We want to bring together our ecosystem of partners to deliver a best-of-breed service.”

Payments To Go is an end-to-end SaaS payment processing solution that enables banks to deliver instant and flexible digital payments faster and more efficiently. Financial institutions can subscribe to the solution through Microsoft Azure Marketplace for convenient billing through one single invoice.

Integrated with Finastra’s Financial Messaging Gateway, Payments To Go provides frictionless, more affordable and direct access to the TIPS and FedNow networks, among others. Combined with specialist compliance services from Fincom and ThetaRay, Finastra Compliance as a Service harnesses the power of AI and ML. As a result, it provides on-the-spot compliance checks for optimal operational efficiency for instant payments.

Real-time compliance to meet real-time payments

Finastra Compliance as a Service helps banks take advantage of, and comply with, a range of instant payment infrastructures. This includes the FedNow service in the US and TIPS in Europe, while mitigating the increased risks of financial crime. With real-time compliance screening by Fincom and real-time AI-powered transaction monitoring from ThetaRay, the service will allow financial institutions to accelerate business growth. Additionally, they can also increase risk coverage and reduce operational costs.

“By delivering relevant value-added payment risk solutions as a service, we will help banks to improve speed-to-market. Furthermore, we will ensure our customers stand to benefit from the ongoing evolution in enabling capabilities like AI and Machine Learning,” added Radha Suvarna, head of BaaS and value-added payment solutions at Finastra.

In a world of football’s dramatic takeovers and contracts, Manuel Sandhofer, SVP and general manager Europe at Nium, explains how the industry’s reliance on legacy cross-border payment systems is putting clubs and businesses at risk.

Football is known for its sizeable takeover deals, player investments and lucrative contracts. But away from the drama, the beautiful game is run like a business, and so far, the evidence suggests it is falling behind the payments curve.

Amid global economic uncertainty and a cost of living crisis, the value of the pound has fluctuated against other leading global currencies, like the US Dollar and the Euro. And as seen in the past, in a bid to offset potentially volatile exchange rates, European football players are seeking to secure their high-value salaries by opting to be paid through international currencies instead.

But with such diverse talent in the Premier League and beyond, requests to be paid in different currencies can – and has – left clubs using legacy cross-border payment systems on the back foot.

Football clubs are just one example of a global business operating in a competitive industry. In today’s economic landscape, these businesses must be able to meet the demands of their global workforce and suppliers or they will be left on the sidelines with devastating consequences.

In the spotlight: Wigan Athletic

Wigan Athletic provides the perfect example of the dangers of missing mission-critical payments. Over the last few years, Wigan has consistently failed to pay player’s wages on time. Point deductions, relegation, a narrow escape from administration, and reputational damage were soon to follow. Just as the game relies on precision, coordination, and timeliness, payments must work in the same way to avoid costly repercussions.

Understanding where issues can arise

So, what action can be taken to overcome these shortcomings? It’s all about removing uncertainty from payments – and with global businesses, like football clubs, this starts with addressing the hidden variables within currency exchange.

No matter how small, foreign exchange (FX) volatility can have a serious impact on bottom-line revenue. Just as a football player’s transfer price could soar overnight, a change in conditions could see the value of the pound drop dramatically and businesses suddenly finding global payment and supplier obligations difficult to meet.

Thankfully, while currency fluctuations can be unpredictable, global real-time payments infrastructure is built to mitigate this risk. With end-to-end FX control, when paying employees, suppliers, or contractors businesses can convert multiple currencies in bulk and lock in the exchange rate ahead of time to manage risk and remove hidden costs.

Another way to eliminate uncertainty from the equation is speed. International business payments via wire transfers or legacy systems like Swift take on average 3.5 days to settle, exasperating issues around FX fee transparency and cash flow.

Instead, businesses can schedule payments to their workforce or suppliers on a certain date and settle the payment within minutes, not days. Paying out in local currencies also improves speed, which is particularly crucial for mission-critical payments like payroll.

On top of this, there are complex regulations to be followed. Each country has its own unique set of payment laws, tax regulations, and banking ecosystems to navigate – any errors made here can lead to substantial penalties.

The right payments infrastructure removes ambiguity from the equation. Global corporates and payroll platforms enabled by real-time payments benefit from faster, cheaper, and more transparent transactions. When exchange rates are locked in, hidden fees are eliminated, and regulatory requirements taken care of, the ‘right time’ to execute payments is all the time.

As important for football clubs as other global businesses

Beyond football, the ability to hire and make payments across borders is rapidly becoming a competitive play for businesses. The ability to tap into international talent pools and expand into new markets is crucial to maintaining business operations and creating a strong footprint for future expansion. But getting money to every employee or supplier in their local currency and delivered to their preferred account, wallet, or card on-time across multiple geographies is no easy task.

Global businesses and payroll platforms enabled by real-time payments infrastructure are putting themselves one step ahead of the competition. It drives efficiency, reduces costs, and manages complexity. As with any organisation, formation is key and finding ways to structure international payroll will be essential to success, both on and off the pitch.

Discover how Nium can help you meet the demands of a global workforce and unlock growth here.