It’s been about five years since real-time payments (RTP) became a reality in the U.S., and their popularity and adoption continue to skyrocket. According to a survey U.S. Bank  conducted among 1,000 financial executives across various industries in May and June of 2022, 56% said they will adopt real-time payments by 2024.

Furthermore, 41% of companies described as “RTP leaders” saw an increase in revenue compared with the previous year, while only 33% of “RTP laggards” reported the same. A further 39% of RTP leaders saw an increase in profits in the past year, while 44% said they saw their brand value increase.

To learn more about the importance of businesses adopting real-time payments and integrating them into their overall digital strategy, PaymentsJournal sat with Mike Jorgensen, Head of Emerging Solutions at U.S. Bank, Anuradha Somani, Head of Payments, Global Treasury Management at U.S. Bank, and Steve Murphy, Director of Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group.

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Real-time Payments as a Competitive Differentiator

The growth of real-time payments continues to rise: In the second quarter of 2022, companies made more than 41 million real-time payments, totaling $18 billion — a 12% growth in volume from Q1, according to The Clearing House.

According to The Clearing House, roughly 62%of accounts in the U.S. can receive real-time payments “and if all the payments providers and banks had everything turned on, that figure could reach about 90%,” noted Murphy.

But real-time payments aren’t just about instant payments; they also mean that payments can be reconciled 24/7 and give businesses access to more and larger amounts of data related to payments, said Somani. She added that businesses shouldn’t just think of real-time payments as something to tack on as an afterthought, but rather using them to create “a fundamental change to your business model.”

“It gives you the ability to create a friction-free and seamless experience, so the payment moves to the back of the mind for the consumer,” she added.

Jorgensen noted some industry-specific examples,