What Were the Main Real-Time Payment Trends in 2022?

Real-time payments (RTP) are one of the fastest-growing spheres in the global payments landscape today. In just one year since 2021, its market size value has increased by approximately $3 billion¹, and the upward trend is sure to continue.

But what are the reasons behind such rapid growth? In this overview, we answer this question by reflecting on the key factors that have influenced real-time payments in 2022 and take a glimpse into their future.

4 Key RTP Trends of the Past Year

As seen over the course of 2022, the major trends driving the massive growth of RTP payments- prominence are:

1. Active Digitization

A significant part of real-time payments booming success throughout the past few years is due to the impact driven by the COVID-19 outbreak and the consumers’ strengthening interest in all things digital.

In response to this demand, banks worldwide are actively investing in optimizing their payment channels. In Europe, new industry players and fintechs have urged traditional banks to set higher standards for user experience, including the adoption of real-time payments. In the meantime, in Asia and LATAM, mobile non-card RTPs are already driving unprecedented transaction volumes.

All in all, while each market has its own development pace, the global picture demonstrates a solid preference for real-time payment services from both the consumer and merchant sides.

2. Expanding Cloud Coverage of Banks

There have been a lot of successful use cases of cloud tech in a wide array of spheres, so it was only a matter of time before the banking industry hopped on the trend. As a result, we saw plenty of cloud-hosted Payments-as-a-Sevice (PaaS) solutions arise in 2022.

As of now, cloud-based payment processing is the only efficient option for providing FIs with the capacity to achieve the level of flexibility, speed, and security of payments dictated by the increasingly digitized space. By 2025, it is predicted that 8 out of 10 financial institutions to use outsourced cloud and platform infrastructure².

According to experts, the agility, efficiency, and scalability of PaaS cloud solutions are exactly what banks and other entities need to respond to the race for real-time payments faster and with lower upfront costs in 2023 and beyond.

3. Strengthening Payments Connectivity

The transition to cloud platforms and real-time payments has pointed out the flaws and overlaps in the processing systems used by financial institutions.

This tendency for payment processing consolidation, which became even more apparent in 2022, will simplify the management of multiple payment schemes and allow organizations to focus on adding value to customers in the future.

4. Persisting Relevance of Payment Cards

Yet another factor that has a notable influence on the development of real-time payments as of 2022 is the prominence of debit and credit cards. Despite global payment digitization, they remain relevant across countries.

However, it’s important to note that issuers encounter challenges related to the aging infrastructure, increasing burden of compliance, and scaling costs. Hence, we are seeing issuing banks investing in technology with the goal of optimizing costs and increasing profitability. This often leads to solutions that merge RTPs and card services to create an outstanding consumer experience.

For instance, Mastercard Send enables real-time P2P transactions for Mastercard cardholders. Another example illustrating this trend is the initiative of some acquires to send instant payments to the gig workers’ bank cards right after the end of their shifts.

What to Expect from Real-Time Payments in 2023?

RTP solutions are evolving rapidly in response to global events and consumer demand. While 2022 was a productive period when it comes to the evolution of instant payments, 2023 is promising to be an even more eventful year for this niche, with ISO20022 and the FedNow initiative going live.

With that said, real-time payments also have brilliant long-term perspectives. According to the latest statistics, the market size value of real-time payments has reached $17 billion in 2022 and is expected to exceed $193 billion by 2030, increasing at a CAGR of 34.9%³.

¹ - Allied Market Research - Real-Time Payments Market Size, Share and Insights by 2031
² - PWC - Payments 2025 & beyond
³ - Grand View Research - Real-Time Payments Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report