Instant payment

Instant payment (sometimes referred to as real-time payment or faster payment) is a method of exchanging money and processing payments, allowing for almost immediate transfer of money between bank accounts, instead of the more typical one to three business days.^[1]

Many countries have implemented instant payment systems, and many instant payment systems and platforms are currently under development worldwide, due to increased need for faster and reliable transactions.^[1]

The Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB) define instant payments as:

Electronic retail payment solutions available 24/7/365 and resulting in the immediate or close-to-immediate interbank clearing of the transaction and crediting of the payee’s account with confirmation to the payer (within seconds of payment initiation).^[2]

BackgroundEdit

The growth of e-commerce has caused changes in people's spending patterns. Shopping is no longer confined to regular business hours, creating new challenges for funds transfers.^[3] Similarly, merchants require faster and more reliable money transfer systems to keep up with consumers' demands.^[4]

Traditional electronic payments like simple bank transfers, that perform the electronic funds transfer within few business days, are not in line with user expectations. It is predicted^[5]^{[by whom?]} that, in the next year,^[when?] instant payments will become the standard for electronic fund transfers, where customers will be able to digitally access their insurers and manage their funds.^[6]

ExamplesEdit

Country	System
Australia	NPP - New Payments Platform,^[7] available from February 2018
Brazil	Pix, released in October 2020 and available since November 2020
China	IBPS - Internet banking payment system,^[8] implemented in 2010
Denmark	MobilePay, since 2013
Europe	RT1, available from November 2017 and TIPS - TARGET Instant Payments Settlement,^[9] available from November 2018
Hong Kong	Faster Payment System - available since 2018
India	IMPS - Immediate Payment Service, implemented in 2010 and UPI - Unified Payments Interface, implemented in 2016
Japan	ZENGIN, implemented in 1973
Norway	Vipps, since 2015.
Philippines	InstaPay
Pakistan	Raast since 2019
Poland	Blik since 2015
Russia	Sistema bystrykh platezhey [ru] - Fast Payments System,^[10] available from 2019
Sweden	Swish,^[11]^[12] since 2012, retail since 2014
Switzerland	Twint,^[13] since 2017
Thailand	PromptPay, which is operated by VocaLink^[14]
United Kingdom	Faster Payments Service (FPS), available since 2008, which is operated by VocaLink
United States	Zelle,^[15] available since 2016 and Venmo,^[16] available since 2013 and The Clearing House's RTP - Real-Time Payments,^[17] available since 2017 and FedNow, launched in mid-2023^[18]