Real-time payments is a key driver of innovation for majority of banks globally: Study

Real-time payments are at the heart of the innovation agenda for the majority of banks worldwide. 96 percent of banks globally state that they will develop new and innovative services on top of their investment in real-time payments in 2019 and 2020, according to the Culture of Innovation Index by ACI Worldwide and leading research consultancy Ovum.

The research also reveals that 92 percent of banks globally expect to grow revenue from real-time payments, reflecting the degree to which real-time has come to underpin a new wave of product innovation and revenue opportunities.

“Our research shows that real-time payments infrastructure is either a direct enabler or closely linked with most of the new services and propositions banks are developing globally,” said Craig Ramsey, head of real-time payments, ACI Worldwide. “The majority of banks globally are beginning to understand that real-time payments, especially when combined with Open Banking, have a huge potential to help banks grow revenue and attract new customers.”

Other key findings:

• Almost half of banks (47 percent) report that real-time payments overlay services are a top three product investment priority, and one in three (27 percent) rank this as their biggest single priority.
• Other leading areas of investment are Open Banking (33 percent), leveraging transaction data to improve services (43 percent) and removing friction from the payment authentication process (48 percent).
• 95 percent of banks globally report that Open Banking has helped change the way they approach delivering new products and services; however, 75 percent still view Open Banking/APIs largely as a compliance issue.
• 74 percent of banks plan to move mission-critical workloads into public cloud infrastructure either this or next year and 89 percent either have already made significant use of cloud or are planning to make further investments in 2019/20.

“The most innovative banks recognize that investment in real-time payments infrastructure is a strong foundation for sustainable innovation,” continued Ramsey. “Real-time payments are a key building block for delivering continuous improvements in products and services for their customers.”