Who’s Winning the Instant Payments Race? Depends on the Customer

Instant payments have entered the mainstream — but how, why and for whom financial institutions deploy them is anything but uniform.

Our latest data brief uncovers a nuanced, often-surprising competitive landscape. Some banks are racing to serve businesses with real-time tracking and confirmation tools. Others, particularly digital-only players, are betting on consumer-first strategies, powered by partnerships and incentive programs. In between, smaller institutions are trying to catch up — but many still haven’t gotten off the ground.

“Real-Time Readiness: How Banks Are Innovating Instant Payment Access for Businesses and Consumers,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and The Clearing House collaboration, explores how United States-based financial institutions align real-time payments with their core business models. Drawing on survey responses from 400 bank and credit union executives, the report captures the motivations, roadmaps and blind spots shaping this evolving landscape.

Inside “Real-Time Readiness: How Banks Are Innovating Instant Payment Access for Businesses and Consumers”

• Discover why mid-sized FIs target business clients with real-time payment capabilities and what benefits those clients prioritize.
• Analyze how digital-only and consumer-focused banks lead P2P innovation and collaborations to drive adoption.
• Explore the surprising disconnect between some banks’ confidence in their offerings and the broader market’s shift toward enhanced services.
• Uncover the customers banks see as the biggest beneficiaries of instant payments and how their perceptions drive strategic investment.
• Examine how an FIs size affects instant payment readiness.

The report also reveals how banks view the value proposition of instant payments differently, depending on the customer type. For businesses, the top benefits include transaction transparency and immediate confirmation. For consumers, it’s about streamlining operations and cutting manual processing costs. Meanwhile, those not yet using real-time rails are mapping out service enhancements like instant bill pay and loan disbursement.

This edition of Real-Time Readiness tells a story of divergence and opportunity. It explores an industry adapting to shifting demands, where customer segmentation and innovation are key to competitive differentiation. The institutions best positioned for the real-time economy will move beyond faster payments and build strategies aligned with distinct user expectations. Whether focused on businesses, consumers or both, banks that tailor offerings intelligently will not just meet demand — they’ll help define what value looks like in the future.

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“Real-Time Readiness: How Banks Are Innovating Instant Payment Access for Businesses and Consumers” is based on a survey of 400 executives at U.S.-based financial institutions conducted from Nov. 12 to Dec. 11, 2024. The data brief examines how FIs are adopting, prioritizing and using instant payment capabilities to meet the distinct needs of business and consumer customers. Statistics should be interpreted within this sample rather than as a representative of all FIs.

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