Upgrading the UK’s ageing payments infrastructure and increasing real-time payments adoption are forecast boost the UK economy by $3.8 billion by 2026, according to a study from ACI Worldwide, Global Data, and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr).
The ‘New Payments Architecture’ programme, led by Pay.UK, will bring sweeping changes to the country’s payments infrastructure over the next five years, delivering real time account-to-account payments.
According to the Cebr, the ‘untapped potential’ of real-time payments in the UK is enormous – the theoretical impact of all payments being real-time could boost the economy by up to $98 billion in 2026, or 2.7% annually.
However, based on 2026 real-time adoption rates (growth to 12.3% of all payments), real-time payments are predicted to unlock $3.8 billion of additional economic output – about 0.11% of formal GDP.
This is considerably less than India and Brazil, which are forecast to add $45.9 billion (1.12%) and $37.6 billion (2.08%) billion of additional GDP respectively – facilitated by strong real-time payments growth – by 2026.
Craig Ramsey, head, real-time payments, ACI Worldwide, says: “If the UK is to truly capitalise on the potential economic benefits of real-time payments over the coming years, then it must address the urgent need to modernise its ageing payments infrastructure and embrace the New Payments Architecture with open arms.
“The onus is on government and industry to work together to increase adoption, otherwise, despite the head start by the Faster Payment system, the UK risks falling even further behind the rest of the world.”