Instant payments hit $22t but just 1% of global flows

The US lags as India processes 19 billion monthly.

Instant payments processed nearly $22t in 2024 across the 15 largest economies using the technology, but adoption has varied widely between countries.

The figure represented about 1% of the roughly $2q in global payment flows. 

According to an August 2026 report by McKinsey & Company, it expects the value of instant payments to grow by 15% to 18% a year over the next five years. 

India and Brazil have recorded some of the strongest adoption, whilst Mexico and the United States have seen slower take-up.

India introduced its Immediate Payment Service in 2010 and launched the Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, in 2016. 

UPI now processes more than 19 billion transactions a month and accounts for nearly a third of the country's total transaction volume.

Its growth was supported by zero fees for merchants and customers, government subsidies for financial institutions handling low-value transactions and participation by major banks and payment apps. 

Consumers can also link accounts from participating banks to several UPI-enabled apps.

India's 2016 demonetisation policy, which withdrew 86% of the country's cash by value, also accelerated the move towards electronic payments. The shift continued during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Brazil has followed a similar path since its central bank launched Pix in 2020.

Instant payments now account for nearly 30% of the country's transaction volume.

Pix was introduced with zero fees for consumers and compulsory participation for certain banks. It supports payments between individuals, consumers and businesses, and businesses themselves.

A 2024 McKinsey survey found that 55% of Pix users cited speed and ease of use as their main reasons for using the service. 

A separate 2025 survey found that almost all micro, small and medium-sized businesses surveyed used instant payments, with Pix accounting for about 40% of their sales mix.  

Pix is also moving into areas traditionally served by credit cards. Banks have introduced options allowing customers to make purchases through Pix and repay them in instalments. 

Credit cards, however, still account for about 60% of transactions amongst higher-income customers, partly because of rewards and other benefits. 

Business use of Pix is expected to increase. In a 2025 McKinsey survey of large corporate and investment banks in Brazil, 95% of companies said they planned to increase their use of the system. 

Mexico has had a different experience. Instant payments account for less than 5% of total transaction volume, compared with about 30% in India.

Mexico's central bank launched CoDi in 2019 and DiMo in 2023, both using the country's SPEI interbank payment infrastructure. Neither has achieved broad retail adoption.

Cash also remains widely used. In McKinsey's 2025 Latin American Payments Survey, 33% of Mexican respondents said they made more than half of their in-store payments in cash. 

Another 22% said cashback, discounts, loyalty points or rewards would influence them to change payment methods.

Only 40% of respondents had used a mobile device for in-store payments through tap-to-pay or QR codes, and just 18% used these methods frequently. 

Adoption has also been slow in the US, despite having two nationwide real-time payment networks.

The Clearing House launched its RTP network in 2017, whilst the Federal Reserve introduced FedNow in 2023. Both support round-the-clock instant payments.

RTP processed about 447 million transactions in 2025, whilst FedNow handled about eight million. Combined, that was a small share of the roughly 345 billion payments made annually in the US.

About 1,800 of the country's roughly 9,000 depository institutions participate in FedNow, whilst around 1,200 participate in RTP. Some institutions are set up only to receive payments.

By comparison, Zelle processed 4.2 billion transactions in 2025, about nine times the combined volume of RTP and FedNow. 

In countries such as Brazil and India, banks are adding services around instant payments rather than relying mainly on transaction fees. These include lending, merchant services, premium cards and instalment products.

Payment processors are also moving beyond basic payment acceptance by offering merchants software, fraud prevention, analytics, financing, reconciliation and cash-management services. 

Card networks, meanwhile, are investing in areas such as premium products, tokenisation, fraud prevention, digital identity and banking infrastructure. 

McKinsey said instant payments are unlikely to replace existing payment methods in mature markets such as the US. 

Banks in these markets are more likely to integrate instant payments into treasury management, liquidity services, embedded finance and other business services.