Real-Time Payments:The Next Stage of Evolution of the International Financial Railroads

As the global economy grows increasingly digital, most players that form the backbone of today’s financial ecosystem are seeing the reducing share of cash and paper-based transactions, especially beyond the retail and P2P transactions. However, the B2B, B2C, G2C and C2B payments landscape is exhibiting a rapid shift too. While the pandemic highlighted the need for moving money faster and digitally, other factors such as new inter-entity interactions and business relationships are also fuelling the need for faster financial railroads.

Estimates suggest that small and mid-sized businesses in the UK alone spend 56 million hours each year chasing late payments. In the US, most categories of consumers and service providers desire instant disbursements of funds. While decades-old paradigms like ACH enable faster movement of money across accounts, more than 38% of transactions take more than three days to settle in the US.

Real-Time Payments:The Next Stage of Evolution ofthe International FinancialRailroads