Full Send-And-Receive Capabilities Are Key to Growing Real Time Payments, a Report Argues

Despite many financial institutions lagging behind when it comes to the adoption of full send-and-receive capabilities for real-time payments, that trend is expected to reverse itself starting in 2025, says a report from Q2 Holdings Inc., a provider of digital-banking solutions.

As more financial institutions add full send/receive capabilities for real-time payments, they will unlock the potential latent in these payments, especially in the business-to-business space, the report says.

Just 22% of financial institutions currently offer full send-and-receive capabilities over the Real Time Payments network operated by The Clearing House Payments Co., while 4% offer full send-and-receive capabilities on the the Federal Reserve’s FedNow, according to statistics from Datos Insights cited in the report.

That situation is expected to turn around significantly in the coming year as real-time payments adoption is expected to undergo high growth after initial flat growth.

In 2025, 56% of financial institutions plan to add send-and-receive capabilities over the RTP network, and 48% of financial institutions say they plan to do likewise for the FedNow network, the report says.

The Q2 report is based on data from the company’s PrecisionLender’s database of 2024 commercial lending, economic data from public sources, and industry research.

In addition, financial institutions plan to bulk up their send capabilities for real-time payments.

“Research shows that many financial institutions have plans to offer send capabilities within the next two years,” Debbie Smart, senior product marketer for Q2, says by email. “Datos Insights reports that 56% of financial institutions plan to add send services on RTP, and 83% on FedNow, in that timeframe. My own conversations with bankers support that likelihood.”

Smart says a Q2 poll of attendees during an August 2024 webinar revealed that 44% of the 114 attendees were either already sending, or had plans to begin sending, real-time payments by the end of 2025.,

“The true value of the instant payments ecosystem for B2B payments is the ability for payment information, such as invoices, to travel with the payment on the payment rail rather than needing to be sent separately via email or postal mail,” Smart says. “This is an important capability in terms of streamlining accounts receivable/accounts payable processes and creating efficiency for the business.”

To meet B2B customers’ demands for efficiency and a better payments experience, financial institutions must focus on integrated solutions and instant payment capabilities, the report concludes.

“Many businesses, especially small and medium-sized businesses, have shown a propensity to move their accounts when their financial institution doesn’t provide the digital tools they value,” Smart says.

Further, offering only send or receive capabilities for real-time payments severely limits B2B customers from taking full advantage of real-time payments, Q2 argues.

“If financial institutions only provide the ability to receive instant payments, their business customers can’t fully take advantage of this crucial capability,” says Smart. “It’s also important for financial institutions to have capabilities on both [The RTP and FedNow] networks so their customers aren’t limited to using instant payments with only the businesses on the same network.”

Offering the full set of instant payments services allows financial institutions to be more competitive in the small-business market, Smart adds.