Instant payment

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Instant payment (sometimes referred to as real-time payment or faster payment) is a method of electronic funds transfer, allowing for almost immediate transfer of money between bank accounts. This was in contrast to the previous transfer times of one to three business days that had been in place until the mid-2010s. [1]

Contents

Since the mid-2010s many countries have implemented instant payment systems that speed up the transfer between bank accounts in response to customer demand for faster transactions. [1]

The Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB) in 2018 defined instant payments as:

Electronic retail payment solutions available 24/7/365 and resulting in the immediate or close-to-immediate interbank clearing of the transaction and crediting of the payee’s account with confirmation to the payer (within seconds of payment initiation). [2]

History

Originally clearing of payments was based on the cheque clearing cycle that required physical cheques to be exchanged by banks at clearing houses for payments to be made between bank accounts. When electronic payments entered the banking systems from the 1970s onwards, the same timeframes and processes were used to settle these electronic payments.

The growth of e-commerce since the 2000s has caused a change in people's spending patterns and expectations. Shopping is no longer confined to regular business hours, creating new challenges for funds transfers. [3] Similarly, merchants require faster and more reliable money transfer systems to keep up with consumers' demands. [4]

Traditional electronic payments like bank transfers, that perform the electronic funds transfers within a few business days, are not in line with user expectations. [5] [6]

Notable instant payment systems by country

NameCountryLaunchedPayment SourcesIdentifiersNotable FeaturesTransaction Volume per year (in billions)
New Payments Platform (NPP)Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 2018Bank AccountPhone number, email or Australian Business NumberRecurring Payments1.2 (2022) [7]
Pix Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil 2020 [8] Bank Account [9] QR code

Pix Key/Alias [10]

Get change as cash at merchants (Pix Troco) [11]

Cash withdrawal (Pix Saque). [12]

42 (2023) [13]
Internet Banking Payment System (IBPS)Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 2010Bank Account

e-wallet [14]

QR Code

Mobile Number [14]

Recurring Payments [14] 18 (2022) [15] [14]
MobilePay Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark 2013Bank AccountMobile NumberCommon app for users of all banks, ability to chat.-
Instant Payment Network (Instapay)Flag of Egypt.svg  Egypt 2022 [16] Bank Account, Meeza Prepaid CardInstant Payment Address (IPA)

Mobile Number Card Number Bank Account Number IBAN QR Code URL

Unified app for inter-bank transfers

Send money requests

0.02 (2023) [17]
MobilePay Flag of Finland.svg  Finland 2013Bank Account [18] Mobile Number [18] Common app for users of all banks, ability to chat. [18] -
Faster Payment System (FPS)Flag of Hong Kong.svg  Hong Kong 2018e-wallet, Bank Account [19] QR Code

Mobile Number [19]

Supports both Hong Kong Dollar & Chinese Yuan Renminbi 0.531 (2023) [20]
GIRO ZrtFlag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 2020Bank Account [21] Bank Account Number

Mobile Number

Email

Tax Number

-
Unified Payments Interface (UPI)Flag of India.svg  India 2016Bank Account

Prepaid Wallet

Credit Card

Credit Line

CBDC Stored Value [22]

QR Code

NFC

UPI ID

Mobile Number

Sound Pattern [23] [24]

Bank Account Number with IFSC

Recurring Payments (UPI AutoPay)

Foreign Inward Remittance

Payments without Internet/Network (UPI Lite X)

Feature phone compatibility [25]

UPI OneWorld (for tourists)

ATM Withdrawal

117.6 (2023) [26] [27]
Immediate Payment Service (IMPS)Flag of India.svg  India 2010 [28] Bank Account [28] Mobile Money Identifier (MMID) [28]

Bank Account Number with IFSC. [28]

Foreign Inward Remittance (FIR) [29] 5.8 (2023) [30]
ZENGINFlag of Japan.svg  Japan 1973Bank Account [31] Account Number [31] Inward Remittance [32] 3 (2023) [32]
CliQFlag of Jordan.svg  Jordan 2020Bank Account [33] IBAN

Account number Alias

0.03 (2023) [34]
RaastFlag of Pakistan.svg  Pakistan 2019Bank AccountIBAN

Mobile Number [35]

0.16 (2023)
InstaPayFlag of the Philippines.svg  Philippines 2018Bank Account

e-wallet [36]

QR Code

Account Number and Recipient's Bank Name Mobile Number Email ID [36]

0.74 (2023) [37]
PESONetFlag of the Philippines.svg  Philippines 2017Bank Account

e-wallet [38]

Account Number and Recipient's Bank Name

Mobile Number Email ID [39]

0.08 (2023) [37]
BlikFlag of Poland.svg  Poland 2015Bank AccountNFC

Dynamic Code [40]

ATM Withdrawal & Deposit

Recurring Payments

1.80 (2023) [41]
Fast and Secure Transfers (FAST)Flag of Singapore.svg  Singapore 2014Bank AccountBank Account Number with Bank Code [42] 0.29 (2022) [43]
PayNow Flag of Singapore.svg  Singapore 2017Bank AccountQR Code

NRIC Mobile Number [44]

International Remittance0.31 (2022) [45]
Bizum Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 2016 [46] Bank Account [47] Mobile Number [47]

QR Code [47]

Direct Donations to NGOs [46] 1 (2022) [48]
Swish Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 2012 [49] Bank AccountQR Code

Mobile Number [50]

-
TwintFlag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg   Switzerland 2017 [51] Bank AccountQR Code

Mobile Number Dynamic Token [51]

0.59 (2023) [52]
PromptPayFlag of Thailand.svg  Thailand 2021Bank AccountQR Code

Mobile Number

3.6 (2023) [53]
Faster Payment Service (FPS)Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom 2008Bank AccountAccount Number and Recipient Name

QR Code

Forward dated payments

Standing orders

4.5 (2023) [54]
Zelle Flag of the United States.svg  United States 2017Bank AccountEmail

Mobile Number

2.3 (2022)
FedNow Flag of the United States.svg  United States 2023Bank Account
EasyPay Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine 2009Bank AccountMobile Number0.05 (2021) [55]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile payment</span> Payment services via a mobile device

Mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device. Instead of paying with cash, cheque, or credit card, a consumer can use a payment app on a mobile device to pay for a wide range of services and digital or hard goods. Although the concept of using non-coin-based currency systems has a long history, it is only in the 21st century that the technology to support such systems has become widely available.

A payment system is any system used to settle financial transactions through the transfer of monetary value. This includes the institutions, payment instruments such as payment cards, people, rules, procedures, standards, and technologies that make its exchange possible. A payment system is an operational network which links bank accounts and provides for monetary exchange using bank deposits. Some payment systems also include credit mechanisms, which are essentially a different aspect of payment.

BancNet is a Philippine-based interbank network connecting the ATM networks of local and offshore banks, and the country's single interbank network in the Philippines in terms of the number of member banks and annual transactions. Due to its status as the country's single ATM switch operator, it is designated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) as the country's national ATM network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faster Payments</span> British payment system

The Faster Payments Service (FPS) is a United Kingdom banking initiative to reduce payment times between different banks' customer accounts to typically a few seconds, from the three working days that transfers usually take using the long-established BACS system. CHAPS, which was introduced in 1984, provides a limited faster-than-BACS service for "high value" transactions, while FPS is focused on the much larger number of smaller payments, subject to limits set by the individual banks, with some allowing Faster Payments of up to £1million. Transfer time, while expected to be short, is not guaranteed, nor is it guaranteed that the receiving institution will immediately credit the payee's account.

Nacha, originally the National Automated Clearinghouse Association, manages the ACH Network, the backbone for the electronic movement of money and data in the United States, and is an association for the payments industry. The ACH Network serves as a network for direct consumer, business, and government payments, and annually facilitates billions of payments such as Direct Deposit and Direct Payment. The ACH Network is governed by the Nacha Operating Rules.

Amazon Pay is an online payments processing service owned by Amazon. Launched in 2007, Amazon Pay uses the consumer base of Amazon.com and focuses on giving users the option to pay with their Amazon accounts on external merchant websites. As of October 2024, the service was available to businesses based in 18 countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States.

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is an Indian public sector company that operates retail payments and settlement systems in India. The organization is an initiative of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, for creating a robust payment and settlement infrastructure in India.

RuPay is an Indian multinational financial services and payment service system, conceived and owned by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). It was launched in 2012, to fulfil the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) vision of establishing a domestic, open and multilateral system of payments. RuPay facilitates electronic payments at almost all Indian banks and financial institutions. NPCI has partnered with Discover Financial and JCB to help the RuPay network gain international acceptance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Immediate Payment Service</span> Electronic funds transfer system in India

Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) is an instant payment inter-bank electronic funds transfer system in India. IMPS offers an inter-bank electronic fund transfer service through mobile phones. The service is available 24/7 throughout the year including bank holidays. National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) was also made available 24/7 from December 2019. Real-time gross settlement (RTGS) was also made available 24/7 from 14 December 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bharat Connect</span> Integrated bill payment system in India

NPCI Bharat BillPay Limited (NBBL) doing business as Bharat Connect, and formerly named Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) is an integrated bill payment system in India offering interoperable and accessible bill payment service to customers through a network of agents of registered members as Agent Institutions (AI), enabling multiple payment modes, and providing instant confirmation of payment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unified Payments Interface</span> Indian instant payment system

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an Indian instant payment system as well as protocol developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in 2016. The interface facilitates inter-bank peer-to-peer (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions. It is used on mobile devices to instantly transfer funds between two bank accounts. The mobile number of the device is required to be registered with the bank. The UPI ID of the recipient can be used to transfer money. It runs as an open source application programming interface (API) on top of the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), and is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Indian Banks started making their UPI-enabled apps available on Google Play on 25 August 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Common Mobility Card</span> Indian interoperable transport card

National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) is an open-loop, inter-operable transport card conceived by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ‘One Nation, One Card' vision. It was launched on 4 March 2019. The transport card enables the user to pay for travel, toll tax, retail shopping and withdraw money.

PhonePe is an Indian digital payments and financial services company headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. It was founded in December 2015, by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer. The PhonePe app, based on the Unified Payments Interface, went live in August 2016.

Paytm Payments Bank (PPBL) was an Indian payments bank, founded in 2017 and headquartered in Noida. In the same year, it received the license to run a payments bank from the Reserve Bank of India and was launched in November 2017. In 2021, the bank received a scheduled bank status from the RBI.

National Automated Clearing House, introduced by National Payments Corporation of India, is a centralised clearing service that aims at providing interbank high volume, low value transactions that are repetitive and periodic in nature. Offering credit and debit service to corporates, banks, and financial institutions, the service, aimed at integrating all regional ECS into one National Payment System, is claimed to be better than its predecessor, Electronic Clearing Service.

Swish is a mobile payment system in Sweden. The service was launched in 2012 by six large Swedish banks, in cooperation with Bankgirot and the Central Bank of Sweden. It had 8 million users as of July 2022. Swish is a member of the European Mobile Payment Systems Association.

A QR code payment is a mobile payment method where payment is performed by scanning a QR code from a mobile app. This is an alternative to doing electronic funds transfer at point of sale using a payment terminal. This avoids a lot of the infrastructure traditionally associated with electronic payments such as payment cards, payment networks, payment terminal and merchant accounts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faster Payment System</span> Real-time gross settlement payment system in Hong Kong

Faster Payment System is a real-time gross settlement payment system in Hong Kong that connects traditional banks and electronic payment and digital wallet operators. Users are able to perform instant money transfer or make payment to merchants by using the recipient's phone number, e-mail or QR code that contains the user's numeric identifier. Using the "traditional way" of full name and account number to make interbank transfer is also allowed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Payments Initiative</span> Pan-European payment system

The European Payments Initiative (EPI), previously known as the Pan-European Payments System Initiative (PEPSI), is a unified digital payment service backed by 16 European banks and payment service providers. Its aim is to allow European consumers and merchants to make next-generation payments for all types of person-to-person transfers and retail transactions via a digital wallet, called Wero. Wero is based on instant account-to-account payments and will eliminate intermediaries in the payment chain and associated costs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pix (payment system)</span> Brazilian instant payment ecosystem

Pix is an instant payment platform created and managed by the monetary authority of Brazil, the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB), which enables the quick execution of payments and transfers. Pix was announced in the summer of 2019, and was fully operational on November 16, 2020. The "Pix" brand name and logo were created in-house by the Central Bank of Brazil in 2020.

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