Extracting true value from globally growing real-time payments

When the global pandemic hit, people initially stopped, or severely reduced, their financial outgoings. But they quickly adapted to new situations with changed spending habits.

Although global payments revenue was estimated to be around $140 billion lower last year than in 2019 — a decline of about 7 percent — consumers spent 30% more with US retailers online in the first six months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

Payment habits are continuing to evolve quickly across the board. The ‘buy now, pay now, get now’ expectations of habitual online consumers have been joined by urgent demands from government departments and agencies, who need to route financial support to hard-pressed businesses as rapidly as possible. Safety and distancing concerns have driven the uptake of contactless. And stay-at-home shoppers have compressed years of digital payments growth into months.

While demand for digital payments continues to grow exponentially, post-COVID, we expect real time payments to redefine value exchange and drive positive social and economic change.

 

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