Celent has released a new report titled Faster Than a Speeding Payment: The Race To Real-Time Is Here. The report was written by Gareth Lodge, senior analyst in Celent’s Banking practice.

In the two years since Celent’s last reports on real-time payments, much has happened, not least of which are the industry’s perception and understanding. As a result, the discussions in many countries that don’t have real-time payments infrastructure are now when they will adopt, rather than why would they adopt. Yet in that intervening period, it’s not just the pace of adoption that has accelerated, but that market and thinking around real-time itself has matured as well. Rather than just being “faster ACH,” real-time payments is increasingly being seen as a fundamentally different payment type. As a result, banks need to think about where real-time is heading, and to plan accordingly.

This thinking is set out in this report, and seeks to explore the following questions:

1. What is the pace of real-time payment adoption?
2. Why should our bank plan for real-time payments?
3. What should a bank do regarding real-time payments?

“Real-time is firmly here, and is increasingly being seen as the payment system of the future. Banks that try to limit the scope of projects today may be saving themselves money in the short term, but they are likely to creating more work, more costly work, in the future,” said Lodge. “Ultimately, however, building a digital bank without building and integrating digital payments will be futile.”