EBAday 2020: It’s do-or-die time for real-time payments

Launching into the session ‘Reaping the potential of real-time payments’, Dean Wallace, director of real-time payments, digital and request to pay, ACI Worldwide argues that the expectations of the market will only continue to evolve, pressuring financial institutions to finalise their real-time payments (RTP) strategy, according to finextra.com.

Wallace elaborates: “We’ve certainly seen a lot of demand in the early days of the launch of real-time payments across Europe and PSD2. Those who have already adopted real-time with propositions in the market are at a great advantage as they are able to test, learn and build better products.”

“Clear competition from big tech such as Google means it’s almost do-or-die time for the banks in this real time digital space.”

Echoing Wallace’s sentiments, Michael Steinbach, CEO, equensWorldline, believes that there is a developing view held by banks that instant payments really must be the new normal across the globe.

He adds that RTP clearly drives commoditisation of financial payments processing: “it’s the end-game scenario where in the end we will have a completely instant world led by a technical standard based on ISO 20022. This is the view we need to take around implementing instant payments and the Netherlands provides a clear example of what is possible with instant payments.”

Adding to the argument that time is certainly of the essence, Claus Richter, deputy CEO & COO, P27 posits that even though regions across the globe are very much at different stages of their RTP journey, the question for those who are trailing should be “what is the opportunity cost”?

That is, what are banks, corporates and consumers currently missing out on by being slow to adopt RTP effectively? Richter suggests that based on this consideration we will see the pace of evolution toward RTP pick up significantly in the coming years.