Real-time payments gradually gaining popularity as a preferred payment method

The outbreak of the pandemic along with the restrictions that accompanied it warmed up consumers globally to newer and faster ways of payment.

Thus, the shift of buyers away from the conventional methods of payment led to the growth of digitalized ways of payment such as real-time payments, BNPL, and one-click payments. With real-time payment systems offering benefits such as cost reductions and payment success rate to consumers and businesses alike, the market size of real-time payments is forecasted to see a double-digit CAGR from 2022 through 2028, as spelled out by the new report.

Real-time payments are not a completely new concept and came into existence with the launch of Zengin, the real-time payment system in Japan.

The successful launch of the Japanese real-time payment method prompted countries such as India, Singapore, Thailand, Australia, among others to implement their own instant payment systems. While UPI in India is the front-runner in terms of adoption and usage of real-time payment systems, other countries in Asia-Pacific are also catching up.

For instance, in Australia, the New Payments Platform (NPP) has had more than a billion transfers representing a value of over trillions of euros since its launch. Likewise, PromptPay, the real-time payments system in Thailand saw a value of transactions amounting to a certain billion euros as of October 2022, according to data cited in the latest report.

As real-time payment is picking up pace in Asia-Pacific, nations such as Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Philippines have advanced in the development of their own real-time payment systems

With the growth of real-time payments as a preferred payment method, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Philippines also made their presence felt in the real-time payment ecosystem. The total number of real-time payment transactions Malaysia, for instance is forecasted to grow at a double-digit CAGR between 2021 and 2026, with the number reaching a certain billion by 2026, as revealed by the new report. Malaysia shifted towards real-time payment with the introduction of DuitNow as of December 2018.

The system provides new value added services such as managing low-value payment in real-time as well as supporting online and in-store QR-code based payments. Further progress in the country's instant transfer system was made when a QR code based cross-border instant payment system was introduced between Malaysia and Thailand in 2021, followed by Malaysia and Indonesia as of 2022. Sri Lanka on the other hand introduced its real-time payment system, Lanka Pay in 2002, allowing a series of stakeholders such as commercial and specialized banks, merchants, consumers, as well as fintech to participate in the real-time payment network. Lanka QR, allowing instant payments via QR code and Just Pay, which facilitates transfer of low value payments digitally were also introduced as part of Lanka Pay to offer improved and advanced ways of payment.