The banking and financial services landscape has reached a tipping point: real-time payments (RTP) are no longer a novelty but a core expectation for speed, transparency, and always-on reliability.
What are Real-Time Payment (RTP)
Real-time payments are the type of payments that are initiated and settled instantly or near instantly. RTP systems operate 24/7 all year long, meaning payments can take place in seconds rather than hours or days.
The real-time payments market is valued at around $38.6 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $628.4 billion by 2035 globally, rising at a CAGR of 42.9%. What changed is not just the technology but the expectation. With smartphones everywhere and confirmation arriving in seconds, customers now judge service quality by whether money moves instantly and reliably at any hour.
McKinsey’s 2024–2025 work on the global payments landscape clearly captures that shift: user interfaces are becoming simpler even as the underlying rails, data standards, and fraud controls grow more complex. In other words, “instant” has become hygiene, not a differentiator.
How Real-Time Payments Are Powering Financial Inclusion
Banking innovations via real-time payments are not only about speed; they are instrumental in extending formal financial services to underserved populations across ASEAN. For instance, although about 24% of adults in the region remain unbanked, growth in digital payment infrastructure is creating pathways to inclusion.
Real-time payment systems do far more than make transactions faster. They streamline value transfer, enhance reliability, and help businesses manage working capital more effectively. Mobile-first payment modes make it even more accessible by reducing entry barriers. Having access to a smartphone and an internet connection reduces inequalities significantly, while also aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
However, there are several barriers that we need to overcome:
- Digital literacy gaps still persist in rural and low-income communities that limit uptake, even when real-time services are available.
- The challenges of infrastructure, such as uneven internet coverage, low smartphone penetration, and sporadic electricity supply, still impede regular usage in many places in Southeast Asia.
- In addition, even among formally banked adults, many do not use their accounts to pay or save regularly, indicating there is a “usage” gap, not just an “access” gap.
Addressing these gaps is critical if real-time payment systems are to achieve their full potential as tools for inclusion, not just convenience.
Evolution of Real-Time Payment Solutions
Real-time payments (RTP) have developed into a fundamental change in payments infrastructure, moving beyond simply aiming to reduce settlement times and instead building continuously available, interoperable, secure payment rails that function continuously, 24/7.
A range of technology trends support this development:
- Microservices and modular architectures are arising to allow financial institutions to deploy and scale payment capabilities more quickly.
- API-driven ecosystems that create seamless interoperability across banks, fintechs, and payment platforms.
- Use of data analytics and artificial intelligence to enable real-time fraud detection and compliance monitoring, and provide personalized transaction experiences.
Around the world, there is a diverse variety of models being adopted in the mature and emerging markets. For example, India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) continues to provide a new standard for scale and efficiency. In addition, systems such as Singapore’s Fast And Secure Transfers (FAST), Malaysia’s DuitNow, and Thailand’s PromptPay are demonstrating how collaboration between regulators and regional connectivity is broadening access to payment services. These are not simply faster payments; they illustrate how money and data are now moving together.
Real-Time Payments and Customer Experience
Real-time payments are reshaping expectations among customers. According to a report issued by The Business Research Company, estimates that the RTP market is estimated to grow from $37.22 billion in 2024 to $48.61 billion in 2025.
For example, India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has set a new record for scalability and efficiency, having achieved, by 2025, the integration of 675 banks, 491 million consumers, and 65 million merchants, all on expressively one platform. UPI accounts for almost 85% of all digital transactions in India and generates about 50% of the global volume of real-time payments, further solidifying itself as the biggest and most inclusive payment network in the world.
Slightly behind, real-time payments are growing rapidly in Malaysia, aided by the government’s push for a single QR system, bolstered together with DuitNow. The payments market is expected to reach $262.5 billion by 2025, generated heavily from digital transactions, which is primarily how consumers will embrace fintech and adopt it for their payments.
For consumers, real-time payments may provide immediacy and transparency, and for businesses, improved liquidity and predictability. In emerging markets, real-time payment offers an even larger role by creating more financial inclusiveness and being able to onboard the unbanked into digital commerce.
When the systems are used properly and at the correct time, they can enable trust and further preclude convenience by bringing groups that have rarely benefited from formal financial systems and small businesses into the financial system.
Real-Time Payment Adoption Trends
Real-time payments are no longer niche; they’re moving into the mainstream. The ACI report projects that by 2028, real-time transactions will account for 27.1% of all electronic payments globally, up from their current share.
- In the Asia-Pacific region, four of the world’s top five real-time payment markets by volume are located here: India, China, Thailand, and South Korea. And it is projected to see over 351.5 billion real-time transactions by 2028.
- Meanwhile, the U.S. has launched FedNow, and the EU has passed its Instant Payments Regulation, ensuring that RTP becomes the new default standard worldwide.
The industry is shifting its focus: the question is no longer “How fast can we go?” but “How seamlessly can we integrate?” Cross-border interoperability (such as inter-ASEAN QR links), deeper SME integration, inclusive access, and real-time insights are now the frontier.
These advancements illustrate the significance of RTP not only for expedience but also for economic resilience, financial inclusion, and structural change of digital finance.
Conclusion
In conclusion, real-time payments are reimagining the future of payments by reconceiving friction, delay and providing new levels of transparency. Its emergence constitutes a full-on tectonic and transformational shift in how people, businesses, and governments transfer and manage liquidity.
As these types of implementations accelerate in the ASEAN region and beyond, the dialogues will evolve from how fast we can conduct these payments to how integrated we can create these systems to link cross-border economies, enable financial inclusion, and reimagine billions in the digital finance space.
Universal real-time payments are underway, and the effects will continue to be seen in all layers of our global financial ecosystems.
FAQs?
1. Why are real-time payment solutions important in banking and financial services?
Real-time payment solutions are important because they offer instantaneous fund transfers, which improve cash flow, increase customer satisfaction, and support financial inclusion by providing a faster and more accessible payment solution.
2. How are real-time payments different from traditional banking transfers?
Real-time payments go through a process that delivers instant execution and settlement, whereas traditional banking payments may take hours or days before the funds are cleared and are often subject to intermediaries and other required verifications.
3. How are real-time payments a benefit to banks?
Real-time payments are a benefit to banks because they reduce operational costs, increase efficiency, and improve the customer experience by minimizing the time required to process the payment to the final destination. Real-time payments also help banks stay competitive, given the speed of financial transactions.
4. What is the real-time payments impact on corporate financial services?
Real-time payments allow businesses to enhance cash flow management, allow for bulk and recurring payments to be more convenient, and allow for quicker payments, all of which improve efficiency and timelines of payments and collections.
5. Are real-time payment solutions a new standard in banking?
Yes, real-time payment solutions are becoming the new standard in banking as customers want faster and more efficient transactions. Mindgate Solutions is a leading provider of modern platforms for real-time payments to banks.
