U.S. Faster Payments Council Shares Results from 3rd Annual Faster Payments Barometer

The U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC), in partnership with Glenbrook Partners, has released results from the 3^rd annual Faster Payments Barometer. The FPC conducted the latest survey of payments system stakeholders to gauge progress and perceptions around faster payments, trends, use cases, and challenges in the United States. The 2021 Faster Payments Barometer was broadly circulated to the industry at large and received responses from a wide range of payments stakeholder segments including financial institutions, core processors, payment network operators, business end-users, acquirers, fintechs, and more. The survey was conducted last Fall.

This current installment of the Faster Payments Barometer illustrates that faster payments adoption continues to rise. In fact, 86% of respondents’ organizations use or enable faster payments and 85% are planning to implement at least one additional faster payments system within the next two years. Further confirming the use of multiple faster payments systems are a necessity, 84% of those surveyed consider them a “must have” for their organization, up nearly 10% from the previous year.
The Barometer results show that faster payments interoperability will be a key for success with most respondents (96%) stating they believe it is somewhat to very important. Continued innovation such as real-time, cross-border faster payments will be critical as well with 90% of organizations believing the United States should implement cross-border faster payments within the next five years.

“Now in its third year, results from the Barometer study always provide an accurate pulse on where the industry stands with regard to faster payments in the United States,” said Faster Payments Council Executive Director, Reed Luhtanen. “This year’s survey revealed that as an industry we’ve made significant progress, but there’s a strong desire for continual advancement to achieve faster payments in the United States. At the FPC, we know our work is far from over and with the support of our members through Work Groups, resource development, and industry education, we’ll continue to move forward and evolve faster payments.”

Today, faster payments are being used to support a variety of transactions including disbursements, bill pay, P2P payments, and eCommerce, but faster payments challenges remain. Financial institutions cite their top three challenges as high upfront costs/implementation complexity (63%), lack of ubiquity/ interoperability (58%), and lack of directory services (38%). Businesses also list high upfront costs/implementation complexity (42%) and lack of ubiquity/interoperability (46%) as barriers with lack of provider support (54%) as their top challenge.
Not surprisingly, these challenges are impacting satisfaction with faster payments progress in the United States. Survey respondents reported their organizations’ satisfaction has slid to 43% in 2021, compared to 49% in 2020.

“The insights from this year’s Barometer demonstrate both how far we’ve come and also remind us that there’s much work left to be done,” said Elizabeth McQuerry, partner at Glenbrook Partners. “Faster payment systems are indeed becoming ingrained in our financial life, but some persistent challenges remain for stakeholders. Many respondents also reminded us that we have not reached an ideal state with the need for interoperability again perceived as key to success.”