Instant Payments Replace ACH Delays for Global Merchants

Real-time payments are emerging as a standard for swift, efficient and convenient transactions. But getting there entails significant investments in payment infrastructure on the part of FinTechs, financial institutions (FIs) and central banks.

A spate of recent announcements highlighted in the latest PYMNTS installment map the real-time march across the globe. Firms are expanding their platforms to support instant, seamless financial flows across borders and within countries.

Latin America highlights how national payment infrastructure is evolving to address specific market needs. In Brazil, provider PPRO has integrated Pix Automático into its platform, coinciding with the Central Bank of Brazil’s official launch of this enhanced instant payment solution.

Pix itself is Brazil’s national instant payment system, and Pix Automático extends its utility. PPRO now enables merchants and payment service providers (PSPs) to offer recurring payment options for subscriptions and utilities through Pix. The new features enable consumers to manage ongoing payments with a single upfront consent, eliminating the need for repeated approvals.

A positive ripple effect is the support of financial inclusion by expanding access to subscription-based services for up to 60 million Brazilians who currently do not possess credit cards.

“Pix Automatico is the biggest thing being launched in Brazil,” Ralf Germer, CEO at PagBrasil, told PYMNTS in June, “after Pix itself — and we’re getting to a completely different level of possibilities, user experiences and merchant experiences.”

Further underscoring the global push, in Europe, Montenegro’s central bank, CBCG, has launched RTS/X, a new payment system with online clearing. The infrastructure processes payments and withdrawals up to 1,000 euros ($1,161 USD) throughout the day. RTS/X utilizes the ISO 20022 standard, aligning with major EU systems, and offers near-instant fund availability and irreversible transactions.

Plaid, the financial data network,  bolstered its multi-rail payment platform, Plaid Transfer, with support for instant pay-ins via the RTP® network. The infrastructure enhancement allows businesses to request payments from customers in real time, providing immediate confirmation and final settlement.

The benefits include the fact that merchants gain faster access to funds and experience fewer payment failures, while eliminating the delays often associated with traditional Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions. The enhancements translate to accelerated cash flow and secure payment validation without the need to expose sensitive bank information.

Meanwhile, ACI Worldwide has introduced ACI Connetic, a cloud-native, centralized payments hub designed to modernize and simplify payment operations for banks and FIs. This solution supports connectivity with payment networks across the United Kingdom, European Union and beyond, including Swift for cross-border transfers and real-time settlement systems like TARGET2, SEPA Instant RT1 and TIPS.

By integrating account-to-account and card payment processing with artificial intelligence (AI)-driven fraud detection, ACI Connetic aims to provide a flexible and scalable foundation for financial institutions

Countries across North America, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific are either live with real-time payment systems or have them expected in the near future. From early adopters like Japan (1973) and Costa Rica (1996) to recent launches in Angola (2023) and Mali (2024), and planned systems in Canada (2026) and Montenegro (2026), the trend is moving toward ubiquity for faster fund flows.

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