North America Real Time Payment Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022-2027)

North America Real-Time Payment Market is expected to grow by 29.9% CAGR in the forecasted period. Real-time payment systems are proliferating worldwide due to increased consumer demand for speed and convenience. There is a continued shift away from cash due to card transactions' strong performance in combination with payment solutions enabled by innovation (for example, real-time payments and mobile wallets) and regulation (for example, the second Payment Services Directive, better known as PSD2 and open banking).

Key Highlights

• The growing adoption of smart devices and booming online retail commerce drives the rapid adoption of real-time payments. While the private sector is trying to promote commerce, governments tend to lag; yet there is the increased usage of real-time payments that could increase tax collection and enhance fraud prevention.
• Real-time payments are also helping in modernizing bank account-based payments. Compared to legacy bank transfers, RTP offers added benefits, such as messaging capabilities, enhanced data, increased security, and real-time funds availability. These systems provide significant benefits to all stakeholders in the ecosystem. The emphasis on data and messaging capabilities, in addition to the real-time settlement, has positioned the US RTP system as the most advanced system in the world.
• The rising tide of immediate payments reflects growing consumer demand for real-time transactions, driven due to the ubiquity of smartphones and other connected devices, which have catalyzed consumer expectations for immediacy.
• There are many regulations in some developed countries to support real-time payments. This benefits consumers and the government, which can efficiently trace activity and help increase the overall economy's fluidity. For instance, The Federal Reserve Bank and the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) are working on a roadmap and incentives to accelerate real-time payments in the United States.
• Contactless payment use and competition rose as a result of COVID-19. With the outbreak, many people and businesses needed access to immediate financing. So it is safe to say that the pandemic was a major impetus behind real-time payments in North America. Real-time payment services are becoming more prevalent in the United States and Canada. For instance, The Clearing House's RTP network is the most well-known example of a real-time payments network in the United States. More than 110 businesses are enrolled in the Federal Reserve's FedNow Pilot Program, which will deploy a real-time network in 2023.

Key Market Trends

Increased Smartphone Penetration to drive the Market

• In North America, the Next G Alliance has started working on the 6G roadmap and 'Green G' (focused on achieving energy efficiency).
• As of July 2021 - Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin are launching 6G@UT, a new research center to build the framework for 6G, the next generation of wireless technology, in collaboration with industry titans such as Samsung, NVIDIA, and others. Samsung, AT&T, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and InterDigital, founding 6G@UT affiliates, will sponsor at least two projects at the center for three years. The firms' researchers will collaborate with UT teachers and students to develop wireless-specific machine learning algorithms, enhanced sensing technologies, and core networking breakthroughs that will form the foundation for 6G.
• As the region moves into a new era of electronics powered by 5G and, eventually, 6G, MIT and Ericsson are working together on two research projects to help construct the new network architecture required to enable the truly transformative use cases that the next generation of mobile networks will offer. Ericsson and MIT will collaborate on two large research projects to develop cutting-edge hardware for next-generation 5G and 6G networks.
• According to GSMA 2021 Mobility Report, there will be 272 million 5G connections in North America. This massive increase in the 5G connections will drive the studied market in the region.

Ease of Convenience will play a major role in adoption of Real Time Payment

• The demand for real-time payments market in the North American region is highly contributed by the growing awareness regarding the technology in the United States. Since the first wave of early adoption went live with The Clearing House (TCH)’s RTP network, many other large banks in the United States have signed on for real-time payment, with hundreds of smaller institutions slated to follow.
• As the merchants and the prominent institutions recognize the benefits of Real-Time Payments (RTP) in the United States, the adoption will rapidly boost substantially. That is going to be a significant driver in new services. Merchants and billers like utilities and health insurers will begin promoting real-time payment methods.
• With no governmental mandate for real-time payments (RTPs) in the United States, the adoption has been slow and limited in application. However, according to Early Warning, P2P payments are now accessible to one in two bank account holders through Zelle. Consumer demand has grown because offering Zelle is now table stakes for financial institutions to compete against PayPal’s Venmo.
• Waterhouse mentioned that in terms of TCH’s initiatives in getting banks on board the ongoing effort to make RTP ubiquitous across the entirety of the US financial services ecosystem, traction might have thus far been slower than initially thought. Achieving ubiquity across the 12,000 or so FIs in the US is a two-step process that includes connecting the core banking systems of these FIs to the TCH network and then getting the banks to make it a part of their service offering.
• The country has been witnessing an increase in customer interest in real-time payments. According to research by Accelerating The Real-Time Payments Demand Curve Report, a PYMNTS and Alacriti collaboration, 36.2% of consumers mentioned that they had used real-time payments, even though the options they leverage either do not support real-time capabilities or are not conducted in real-time. This indicates that many payors consider their transactions have been completed and their obligations have been fulfilled the moment they receive notifications that payments went through, even though some methods, even digital ones, would take days to reach recipients and settle in their accounts.

Competitive Landscape

The market is fragmented owing to the presence of numerous players operating in the market. The companies are involved in various strategies such as product innovation; service providers are forming alliances.

• According to a new global study conducted by payments processor ACI Worldwide and the Centre for Economic and Business Research, the United States falls behind India, Brazil, China, Thailand, and South Korea in driving businesses and consumers to adopt this speedier sort of payment system.
• In March 2021 - After meeting the European Commission's criteria, Mastercard completed the acquisition of a majority share in Nets' Corporate Services division. According to the payments network, the contract provides a"broader set" of account-to-account capabilities. Clearing, settlement, bill payment, and e-invoicing are among the functions linked to immediate payment infrastructure.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support

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