According to a recent PYMNTS study on instant payments, there are more than 60 countries that possess or are in the process of developing a real-time payments scheme on a national or regional level.
In Europe, instant payments have seen historic growth in recent years, with European Union countries leveraging their preexisting economic relationships to ensure quick and seamless cross-border payments for consumers and businesses in the region.
One of the continent’s largest economies, France, is expected to see growth in the real-time payments sector add 2.8% to the GDP over the next five years, per the study.
In fact, daily real-time payments volume in France, which was one of the first adopters of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Instant Credit Transfer scheme (SEPA Instant), is projected to hit 1.2 billion in 2026, up from 108 million in 2021.