It was recently announced that Walmart will be working with Fiserv to implement real-time payments for their customers using Fiserv’s real-time payment transaction rails. Real-time payments aren’t a new concept, as The Clearing House’s RTP network has been in the market for many years and the Federal Reserve’s FedNow offering joined the fray last year, with a slow trickle of bank adoption hastened somewhat in the last year, and even slower merchant and consumer assumption. Will Walmart’s move prompt banks and merchants alike to move more quickly? If so, how should you as a merchant prioritize real time payments on your payment acceptance and technology roadmap?
Erika Curtis, Lead at W. Capra shared, “Walmart definitely has a tendency to push the market, but the banks have been pushing a slow pace to work with the Clearing House RTP and FedNow and adopt ISO 20022 as a global standard, significantly delaying the RTP timeline for most merchants. By some estimates, real-time payments are expected to comprise just over 25% of electronic payments worldwide by 2027[1], while the US was at a shade over 1% real-time payments out of all electronic payments last year.”
How and when should I consider real-time payments?
In addition to bank adoption and standardization, which will in turn allow merchants to more easily implement real-time payments, consumer expectations will also generate change in the following years. Curtis elaborated, “The younger generation who may not carry cards and is used to transacting with Venmo, Zelle, Cash App or similar means will prompt a huge push for merchant readiness. Even with these pushes, it’s probably a five-year timeline before real-time payments are truly considered table stakes for merchant payment offerings.”
For help evaluating how to prioritize your payment initiatives, W. Capra is a leader in retail technology, dedicated to remaining at the forefront of how merchants should consider evolving their payment acceptance and cost optimization. Curtis added, “We have the ability to ask the right questions of our clients and the myriad vendors and partners they may be working with to ensure that any payments and related technology roadmap will be fit for purpose both for the moment and as it relates to future goals and ongoing industry and consumer advancements. Our retainer model allows our clients to benefit from our perpetual involvement in the industry while prepping and planning for their next major initiative.”
Erika Curtis is passionate about leading W. Capra clients in their considerations related to payments and retail technology. For further discussion contact Erika Curtis at [email protected].
[1] https://www.paymentsdive.com/news/fednow-clearing-house-real-time-payments-rtp-adoption/702346/
