Real-time payments continue to advance globally. Banks, FinTechs, corporates and governments are all pursuing initiatives to accelerate payments for their citizens and customers.
In the U.S., digital banking platform Ibanera has incorporated the Federal Reserve’s FedNow® Service to offer these faster payments nationwide. This marks a milestone in American real-time payments adoption. This strategic collaboration enhances Ibanera’s application programming interface (API)-driven banking ecosystem. It also enables FinTechs and businesses to conduct instant transactions 24/7 year-round. According to CEO Michael Carbonara, Ibanera’s secure and compliant infrastructure within the FedNow Service ensures swift and efficient transactions. The company’s strategic partnership with FedNow comes as global real-time transactions are projected to reach $58 trillion by 2028. This increase represents a 161% surge between 2024 and that year. Currently, The Clearing House’s RTP® network in the U.S. is setting multiple records in both volume and value for real-time payments in the first quarter of 2024, including a record 76 million transactions.
FinTech Eastnets is introducing instant payments access as a service for SEPA Credit Transfers Instant (SCT Inst). This service will extend its global Swift Service Bureau offering. Hosted in Luxembourg-based partner data centers, this cloud solution provides financial institutions a fast and cost-effective integration into Europe’s real-time payments infrastructure. The cloud solution is also in full compliance with Swift and European financial regulations. The service offers quick market entry and scalability and reduces total cost of ownership (TCO) by up to 60% compared to on-premises solutions. It includes advanced anti-fraud, anti-money laundering (AML) and sanction-screening capabilities, addressing the critical need for security in instant payment environments.
Instant payments also set new usage records in Europe. In the past 12 months, clearing and settlement system STET, in collaboration with ACI Worldwide, processed more than 50 million cross-border real-time transactions. In 2023, STET handled more than 35 billion transactions, an average of €25 billion ($27.5 billion) daily. This figure is expected to surge by more than 50% in 2024, driven by the new European Union Instant Payments Regulation passed in February.
The partnership offers European banks and payment service providers a seamless solution for SEPA Instant Credit Transfers, utilizing ACI’s Low Value Real-Time Payments software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering. This collaboration enables 20 member banks to connect directly to European schemes, ensuring pan-European reachability and interoperability. According to ACI Worldwide’s “It’s Prime Time for Real-Time” 2024 report, instant payment transactions in Europe are on the rise. These transactions are projected to rise from roughly 17 billion in 2023 to nearly 39 billion in 2028. These transactions could potentially account for 13% of the continent’s electronic payments by 2028.
Global human resources platform Remote teamed up with cross-border payment provider Nium to augment its international payroll offerings with instant transactions. The partnership leverages Nium’s global real-time payments infrastructure. It enables Remote to offer clients multicurrency digital wallets supporting funding in 20-plus local currencies. This eliminates the need for local bank account management. The service provides live interbank exchange rates that users can lock for up to 24 hours for bulk cross-border payroll processing. It includes flexible payout options to bank accounts, cards and eWallets across more than 220 markets and 100 real-time corridors globally.
The “Real-Time Payments World Map,” a collaboration with The Clearing House, examines developments fueling the expansion of instant transactions worldwide.