Real-time payments could generate $285.8billion of additional global GDP growth and create over 167 million new bank account holders by 2028, according to a new report published by global paytech firm ACI Worldwide.
Produced in collaboration with The Centre for Economics and Business Research, the second ‘Real-Time Payments: Economic Impact and Financial Inclusion‘ report from ACI Worldwide reveals an empirical link between real-time payments and financial inclusion.
According to the research, by providing citizens with access to affordable financial services, real-time payments drive economic growth and could potentially help lift millions of people out of poverty. Real-time payments improve overall market efficiencies in the economy by enabling money transfers between consumers and businesses within seconds, rather than days. They also reduce transaction costs and formalise segments of the cash-based ‘shadow economy’, thereby increasing revenue opportunities.
Additionally, the associated financial inclusion uplift experienced by many countries as a result of increasing real-time transactions presents significant new revenue opportunities for financial institutions.
Across all 40 countries in the study, real-time payments boosted GDP by a total of $164billion in 2023 – equivalent to the labour output of 12 million workers.
“Real-time payments act as a powerful catalyst for economic growth and societal transformation in modern, digital economies. They improve the efficiency of financial systems and enable greater financial inclusion,” said Thomas Warsop, president and CEO of ACI Worldwide. “This research demonstrates how payments modernisation presents a win-win proposition for everyone, including governments and banks.”
Improving financial inclusion
Real-time payments also appear to boost financial inclusion, especially among three demographic groups: younger people (aged 18 to 24); women; and people in lower-income groups (40 per cent of the population with the lowest incomes).
By 2028, 167.2 million previously excluded from the financial system across the 28 countries studied for financial inclusion could have bank accounts.
Europe’s shift to instant payments, mandated by the EU’s Instant Payments Regulation, is expected to unlock economic growth and improve financial inclusion across the 27 EU member states. The EU aims to replicate the success of other countries in the region, such as Turkey, which is expected to generate $5.1billion of additional GDP by 2028 due to real-time payments, followed by the UK, with an expected additional GDP growth of $4billion by 2028.
The economic and financial inclusion benefits of real-time payments in the Middle East—the world’s fastest-growing real-time payments market—are most felt in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE. Saudi Arabia’s GDP is expected to get a boost of $1.1billion by 2028, while Bahrain is forecast to have additional GDP growth of $677.6million.
“The research for the first time identifies a positive empirical link between instant payments and financial inclusion,” explained Owen Good, head of economic advisory at CEBR. “As economies increase adoption of instant payments, reduction in transaction costs, enhancements to user experience and wider behavioural factors are directed linked to increasing the share of the population engaging with financial institutions,”
“Specifically, we find that real-time payments adoption is expected to create significant benefits for individuals, the financial sector itself and the wider economy. Put simply, we continue to see that moving money in seconds rather than days rewards everyone associated with the transaction.”
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