UK SMBs Want Faster Payments

U.K. SMBs want faster payments — but how many actually care?

Well, according to a new online survey from YouGov and ACI Worldwide, 48 percent of U.K. SMBs are frustrated by how much delayed payments impact their business bank accounts. That research also provides some insight into how those payments impact their day-to-day operations.

Those results indicate:

• 33 percent of respondents say late payments affect their ability to meet financial obligations on time.
• 17 percent feel late payments have a negative impact on staff upkeep, including salaries, expense reimbursement and recruitment.
• 10 percent note access to finance is limited for business requirements such as equipment, product development and research.

“For small businesses, delayed and unpredictable cash flow can significantly affect their success. Our research presents a great opportunity for banks working with these businesses to demonstrate the value of their real-time payments offering. This will not only help them grow in the medium-term, but will also strengthen the overall economy in the future,” said Barry Kislingbury, Director, Solution Consulting, Immediate Payments at ACI Worldwide.

And nearly all small business owners (95 percent) believe that real-time payments would have an impact on them. Of those surveyed, 29 percent said that faster payments is the most important banking service for what their current needs are.

A majority of those surveyed (67 percent) said that bank transfers are their preferred method of payment from customers, since it is supported by Faster Payments — which cuts down payment times between those customers and the customer accounts.

SMEs reported mobile and Internet banking (64 percent) have had the most positive impact on their business, according to the survey. However, the majority of SMEs feel that many of the new products offered, such as alternative financing (86 percent), P2P payments (89 percent), biometric recognition (91 percent) and contactless (86 percent), have had minimal effect on their business so far.