NEW YORK—The demand for real-time payments has taken on a new urgency in recent weeks.
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed enormous pressure on consumers and small businesses struggling to generate income as public health concerns force travel, retail shopping and billions of dollars in business activity to a halt, noted Mobile Payments Today.
“The need to access immediate funds has forced businesses and individuals to leverage various means of moving funds across town and across borders to provide the basic necessities of everyday living and business continuity,” Mobile Payments Today said.
"In the U.S. particularly we are seeing a heightened interest in the speed of money movement," Bridget Hall, principal product manager, real-time payments at ACI Worldwide, told Mobile Payments Today.
Hall, in early April, stated bill payments were a major concern by many consumers and small businesses given that many bills came due at the beginning of the month. Timeliness of disbursements payments, such as social security, government assistance and other financial aid, is also going to be a major concern among those who depend on those payments. The urgency created by the pandemic means that reducing the amount of time need to convert a paper check into available funds is critical for many, Mobile Payments Today said.
A Need to Move Quickly
"This need to move money quickly and accurately is not a new concept, but the number of people who can relate to this need is definitely going to increase with the impacts of COVID-19," she said.
A report issued last week by ACI shows real-time payments were expected to surge over the next few years, with more than half a trillion transactions and a compound annual growth rate of 23% between 2019 and 2024.