Economic impact of real time payments

Real-time payments allow people, businesses, and governments to make payments more quickly with funds immediately available for use by the recipient. Compared with some legacy alternatives, which can take days to reach a recipient, real time payments offer a faster and more predictable means of payment, potentially creating a range of economic and social impacts that affect consumers, businesses, and governments.

However, while the existing academic literature has considered the effects that new payments options can have on the payment mix, the relatively recent introduction of real time payments schemes in many countries means there is more limited quantitative evidence on the effects of real time payments in particular on other payment instruments.

Therefore this report aims to:

• fill the gap in the literature, quantifying how real time payments should be expected to affect the mix of payment types and the wider social and economic implications of this shift in the payment mix.
• help policymakers understand the likely impacts of introducing real time payments for a given set of macroeconomic and structural circumstances.
• provide an indicative guide to the economic and social impacts of introducing real time payments based on the experience of countries that have already done so.
• provide an initial guide for those considering its introduction prior to the development of a more detailed business case based on the specific implementation planed.

By helping policymakers to understand the likely impact on the payment mix, the benefits that will matter most for their country, and the scale at which those benefits might be realised, this study can hopefully support policymakers in considering more specifically the expected impacts of real time payments in their respective countries.

Find out more about the growth of real time payments in an in-depth report from our US team.

You can also access our other payments reports at Deloitte.co.uk/Payments.