The global payments ecosystem continues to morph, with exciting innovations coming online unabated. But for the myriad of new payment tools and channels to work efficiently and securely, they need the backbone of real-time payment infrastructure.

The real-time payments revolution in Europe

In 2014, just 17 countries had live real-time payments systems in place. Fast forward to today, and more than 70% of the globe has a live real-time payments infrastructure, or is planning to launch one soon.

It’s estimated that three-quarters of the world’s population will have access to real-time payments by the end of 2022.

Data from UK shows that Faster Payments transaction volumes increased by 23% from 2020 to 3.6 billion in 2021, continuing a trend of yearly double-digit growth which bodes well for the future.

A major factor in the growth of Faster Payments is that businesses are increasingly embracing the efficiency and security of the system ahead of other bank transfer methods like Bacs Direct Credit.

As the Digital & Card Payment Yearbooks show, the success of instant payment systems hinges on the prevalence of bank transfer usage in any given market.

Where direct debit or bank transfer schemes like Bacs the UK, iDeal in the Netherlands and similar services have been long-established, consumers and businesses will be more willing to switch to instant payment methods.

As can be seen in less mature markets across Eurasia, the roll-out of real-time payment schemes is being driven largely as a way of bypassing legacy infrastructure limitations, with high mobile device penetration giving consumers and businesses in these markets an easy and convenient way to make a wide range of payments.

While demographic differences also play a part, with younger consumers increasingly turning away from traditional payment tools like credit cards, cost also is a driver.

As card interchange fee rows rumble on, it’s clear that many businesses and consumers are looking for cheaper ways to pay.

With instant payment schemes, Open Banking, account-to-account services and now variable recurring payments increasingly available, the rapid adoption of real-time payments is set to skyrocket over the next few years.

Real-time payments action is also ramping up in the US, with the announcement that the Federal Reserve is planning to launch its own service, FedNow, in mid-2023, enabling consumers and businesses to send and receive instant payments effortlessly.

There’s no doubt that the launch of FedNow and other instant payment systems over 2023 will spark a huge spike in ecommerce transactions, and galvanise the march towards a cashless future.

The Industry Bible of Payment & FinTech Intelligence

The Digital & Card Payment Yearbooks give a market-leading and comprehensive, up-to-date picture of the Open Banking, Digital payments, Payment services and Card issuing, Acquiring, and Processing businesses within 43 countries, including pan-European and Eurasian overviews and much more…

We’ve introduced a fresh new interactive layout for the 2022 Digital & Card Payment Yearbooks, making it quicker and easier to find the information you’re looking for.

The report comprises of 2 volumes – Volume 1 covers payments statistics of the 33 European countries and Volume 2 contains the Eurasian payments statistics on 10 countries. The European Digital & Card Payment Yearbooks 2021-22 and the Eurasian Digital & Card Payment Yearbooks 2021–22 are available to purchase as complete volumes or as individual country profiles.

The reports are recognised through the payments industry as the most authoritative source of cards and payments business information on the European and Eurasian payment markets.

For further information, please contact us, e.g.

• Table of Contents highlighting key areas of research
• Sample profile outlining detail in the cards and payments section

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