A new publication of Germany-based business intelligence company yStats.com, “2021 Key Trends of the Payment Industry: Real-Time Payments in Asia” details the process of an ongoing move to real-time payments in countries of Asia. The publication reveals that most markets in the region are increasingly adopting this type of fund transfer, despite the onset of the global health crisis.
Real-time payments boosted in selected Asian counties with the outbreak of COVID-19
As the pandemic was announced resulted from the COVID-19 virus spread, some countries in the region of Asia underwent significant improvements in the adoption rates of the local real-time payment solutions. For example, in Japan, the Core Time System saw the largest value of instant transactions in March 2020, compared to five months before and seven after. Another winner was the Philippine IstaPay that between January 2020 and June 2020 saw three-digit growth rates in transaction values in volumes. Meanwhile, India has been experiencing lower values, volumes, and year-on-year growth rates via their IMPS and UPI real-time payment solution than other nations in the region, though even there, the numbers are gradually stabilizing onwards. This was despite some core differences in India’s payment systems, as detailed in the yStats.com report.
Asia is forecasted to grow rapidly in terms of real-time payments in the near future
The upward trend in the adoption of real-time payment solutions is expected to go by leaps and bounds in Asia, according to the yStats report. In Singapore, for instance, the share of immediate payments in the total value of transactions is expected to rise by close to ten percentage points annually through 2024. China, the largest economy in the region, is forecasted to increase the volumes of real-time transactions by about one-fifth each year by 2024. At the same time, currently developing Malaysia is forecasted to have even higher growth rates. Moreover, Sri Lanka has already accomplished to transfer most non-cash payments into its Real Time Gross Settlement System.
