Fundamental changes to ‘business as usual’ as a result of Covid-19 have exposed the need for resilient, reliable, and efficient systems to maintain essential payment services and protect the interests of all ecosystem participants, from consumers to the largest corporations. As individuals and businesses move entirely online and supply chain interactions become digital, expectation for immediate 24x7x365 service becomes the benchmark, and firms which cannot meet this demand will struggle to maintain market relevance.

Fabio Panetta, member of the executive board of the ECB commented: “The Covid-19 crisis is reinforcing an existing trend: the rising demand from consumers and merchants for efficient payment schemes. […] Likewise, efficient payment systems are necessary to quickly mobilise the resources made available to support small companies, self-employed workers and social institutions.”

Several impending Eurosystem changes are soon set to influence the instant payments landscape, including Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and migration to ISO 20022 standards. Additionally, in an attempt to integrate interoperable payment systems across Europe, authorities are launching a new interface called European Single Market Infrastructure Gateway (ESMIG) to harmonise TARGET services and to simplify access, boost connectivity, and allow firms to work from common reference data and to leverage shared data and billing systems.

As evidenced by the incoming ESMIG and the need to integrate interoperable systems across Europe, the ability to access infrastructure that facilitates instant payments is vital. By tapping into the increasingly connected ecosystem with countless new partners and reachability, doors are opened to new products, services and potential to build market share.

The “Instant Payments: Why Covid-19 is Bringing the Roadmap Forward” impact study explores how a cloud-based instant payments system greatly improves resiliency and can create a competitive advantage. Given that the fintech community tends to be ‘cloud first’, banks will find that they must adopt similar cloud-based approaches in order to work alongside or compete with these younger players. Find out why instant payments are an ideal fit for financial institutions to take their first steps directly into both the cloud and payments as a service by either downloading your copy of the study, here. You can also watch a recent webinar on the topic of instant payments, here.