Omdia: Payment issuers and acquirers will spend $3.1bn on real-time payments in 2023

Payment issuers and acquirers are prioritizing IT investments towards real-time payments in 2023, with most merchants interested in accepting real-time payments. In preparation for Money 20/20 Europe on June 6 2023, Omdia’s new report has found that 23% of issuers and acquirers indicated real-time payments are their top priority in terms of product development.

Key findings from the study include:

• Payment issuers and acquirers will spend $3.1bn on real-time payments in 2023 globally. IT spending is projected to reach $4.1bn in 2027, exhibiting a CAGR6.8% over 2022-2027 period.
• 23% of issuers and acquirers indicated real-time payments are their top priority in terms of product development, ahead of debit and credit cards, and digital wallets. Bill payment, account-to-account (A2A) and cross-border SME payments are seen as the top three products enabled through real-time payments.
• Nearly four in 10 payments issuers and acquirers see open banking payments in their top three opportunities; yet greater use of the cloud is required to increase capacity and support open APIs ecosystem.
• The vast majority of merchants (80%) stated they would be interested in accepting real-time payments in store while more than three quarters would be interested in accepting real-time payments online.

Regulatory initiatives are driving major change in the payment industry with the development of real-time payment infrastructure in many markets urging banks to invest in new systems. Open banking maturity and fintech partnerships will see alternative payment services grow in familiarity for consumers and businesses in 2023.

Ultimately real-time payments will evolve into a global system making payments and remittances more accessible. Coupled with this all kinds of traditional non-bank actors are now keying in on payments and financial transactions as the lynchpin of a broader technological ecosystem with superapps in Asia, especially, appealing to younger generations.

Ouliana Smith, Senior Research Analyst in Omdia’s Financial Services team commented: “For vendors, strategic partnerships with financial institutions and fintechs will be critical to accelerate adoption of alternative payments, recognizing that the field of potential clients now includes telcos, retailers and other commercial businesses moving into the payments space.”