Global instant payments to surpass $27 trillion by 2026, report finds

Global transaction value of instant payments is expected to surpass $27.7 trillion in 2026, from just $4.8 trillion in 2021, according to a new report published on Tuesday.

The report was published by U.K.- based Juniper Research, an analyst house specializing in digital technology market research, revealed that the growth percentage will amount 470 percent.

This increase is said to be driven by improved cost and transparency for instant payments compared to traditional payment schemes.

Notably, instant payments scheme is referred to any electronic retail payment system that is available 24/7 on daily basis, with transactions processed in under than ten seconds.

Instant payment schemes include services as U.S.- based Automated Clearing House (ACH), a network used for electronically moving money between bank accounts.

Clearing House Automated Payment System (CHAPS) is a similar service that is considered as a type of high-value, bank-to-bank payment system that provides irrevocable, settlement risk-free, and efficient payments.

Furthermore, the study forecasts that instant payment schemes will progressively disrupt both domestic and cross-border channels by offering payments that are faster to process, cheaper to both facilitate and initiate, and easier to track and reconcile.

Additionally, the released data found that over 70 percent of the overall transaction value of instant payments will be local in 2026, with instant payment schemes lacking cross-border interoperability.

However, the study expects that Central Bank Digital Currencies (CDBCs) to play a major role in enhancing cross-border payments due to their clean slate nature.

In other words, the CDBCS can design new methods with cross-border use cases, a step that will require prioritization by regulators.