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The worldwide adoption of ‘fast payments’ or ‘real-time payment’ systems started to draw attention in the early 2000s[1] due to its value proposition of quicker and continuous service availability for low-value transactions. A real-time payment system is defined as an instantaneous, irrevocable, continuously available system which can facilitate higher volumes of transactions at fraction of the cost for end-user. South Korea’s electronic banking system became the first one to launch fast payments in 2001, followed by Chinese Taipei, Iceland, Malaysia, and South Africa over the next five years. None of these is a major/developed economy. The UK became the first advanced economy to launch faster payments systems in 2008. Two of the largest countries in the world – China (IBPS) and India (IMPS) adopted real-time payment systems in 2010 and the number of countries has continued to grow since then. One should not be confused by Japan’s Zengin system that was (launched in 1973) originally an RTGS system but has evolved its functionality over six generations of advancements and now aims for a truly real-time system.

After 18 years of mainstream introduction, Australia, the US, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Hungary, and the Netherlands are still trying to catch-up with the implementation of real-time payment systems. By 2018, ~40 countries had RTP systems in place, indicating a rate of RTP adoption slower than what RTGS witnessed. However, big dogs are catching up fast and in 2017–18 alone, around 15 RTP programs were put in development/implementation pipelines.

Key drivers for RTP growth

  • Increasing customer expectations to settle transactions at the speed of sharing a message on social media and avoid transaction fees

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