More than 138 million real-time payments transactions were processed in Singapore in 2020, a surge of 48% compared to 93 million in 2019, as the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically accelerated trends away from cash, a new global report from ACI Worldwide and GlobalData reveals.
Analysing global real-time, account-to-account payment volumes and forecasts across 48 global markets, the report projects CAGR for real-time payments of 23% in Singapore from 2020 to 2025.
Mobile wallet adoption in Singapore rose to an historic high of 71% in 2020, up from 57% in 2019 and 28% in 2018.
“The pandemic has cast the spotlight on the importance of digital payments and robust payment infrastructures, condensing a decade of anticipated innovation into one year and creating human behavioural changes that will not reverse as we emerge from the crisis,” said Jeremy Wilmot, chief product officer at ACI Worldwide.
Wilmot said countries with a robust digital payments infrastructure already in place have coped better than those without when it comes to containing the economic impact of the pandemic.
“Real-time payments have enabled governments, working jointly with financial institutions, to accelerate much-needed disbursements and economic stimulus payments to their citizens,” he said. “They have also enabled real-time liquidity to businesses that had to adapt to disrupted supply chains.”
Samuel Murrant, lead analyst on payments at GlobalData, said that as consumers become used to the speed of real-time settlement for P2P payments, they will naturally move to using them for e-commerce over the relatively slower and less convenient process of using cards online.
“From there, there is potential to move into in-store payments, once enough consumers recognize real-time payment brands and the user base is high enough to deliver sufficient value to merchants,” said Murrant.
The report found that in Singapore, the real-time share of electronic transactions in 2020 was 9%, up from 7% in 2019. It is predicted to be 17% by 2025.
Also, the value of real-time transactions was up by 40% from 2019 rising from $110 billion to $154 billion. The expected CAGR by 2025 is 18%.
Further, mobile wallet adoption in Singapore rose to an historic high of 71% in 2020, up from 57% in 2019 and 28% in 2018.
Globally, the total number of real-time transactions in 2020 were 70.3 billion, up 41% from 50 billion in 2019.
The real-time share of global electronic transactions in 2020 was 10%, up from 8% in 2019; it is predicted to be 17% by 2025.
Worldwide, the value of real-time transactions was up by 33% from 2019 rising from $69 trillion to $92 trillion. The expected CAGR by 2025 is 12%.
