Major National Instant Payment Systems

Instant payment systems began developing in the 1970s as a response to the acceleration of globalization and the increasing intensity of financial transactions. However, modern instant payment systems (IPS) started taking shape in the late 2000s, with their adoption accelerating in the mid-2010s as the traditional finance (TradFi) sector sought alternatives to the rising popularity of digital assets as a payment method.

Let’s take a look at some of the most widely used IPS solutions across different countries today.

Faster Payments Service 

The Faster Payments Service (FPS) is an instant payment system launched in 2008 in the U.K., considered the first fully functional IPS. It facilitates both personal and corporate transactions between banks within the country.

Main features of FPS are:

• transactions are processed within seconds;
• the maximum transaction amount is £1 million;
• available 24/7, ensuring instant fund availability for users;
• supports a wide range of payment technologies, including open APIs, online banking, mobile apps, QR codes, ATMs, and voice commands;
• equipped with security measures to prevent unauthorized transactions and protect users’ personal data.

In 2024, FPS processed 5.09 billion transactions totaling £4.2 trillion (~$5.4 trillion). Currently, 45 major U.K. banks participate in the system, providing infrastructure for smaller banks, FinTech companies, and non-banking organizations to access FPS.

Internet Banking Payment System 

The Internet Banking Payment System (IBPS) is China’s national instant payment system, launched in 2010 and managed by the China National Clearing Center (CNCC). In 2023, IBPS processed 16.98 billion transactions worth ¥300.95 trillion (~$41.3 trillion), according to the People’s Bank of China (PBC). This makes it the largest IPS in the world by transaction volume.

Additionally, China also operates the High-Value Real-Time Payment System (HVPS), which is designed for large-scale interbank transactions and operates using a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) model, similar to Fedwire in the U.S. and TARGET2 in the eurozone. In 2023, HVPS processed 382 million transactions amounting to 8,480.95 trillion yuans (~$1,167 trillion), according to PBC.

SEPA Instant Credit Transfer 

The SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) is a European instant credit transfer system launched in November 2017 as part of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). It enables instant euro transfers between accounts across SEPA member countries.

Key features of the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer are:

• transactions are processed within ten seconds;
• funds can be transferred 24/7/365;
• the maximum transaction amount is €100,000, but from October 5, 2025, system participants will be allowed to set their own limits;
• all system participants must comply with the Instant Payments Regulation (IPR), which took effect on January 9, 2025.

According to the European Payments Council, as of Q4 2024, 77% of payment service providers (PSP) in the European Union and more than 89% in the eurozone, over 2,700 payment providers in total, have joined the SCT Inst system.

The European Central Bank reports that in H1 2024, 34 retail payment systems in the eurozone processed approximately 52.1 billion transactions totaling €25.1 trillion, with SCT Inst accounting for 7.8 billion transactions worth around €1 trillion.

FedNow 

FedNow is an instant payment system launched by the U.S. Fed in July 2023. It enables banks and financial institutions to conduct real-time domestic transactions in U.S. dollars.

The key features of FedNow align with standard IPS characteristics: centralized operation, payment processing within seconds, support for various payment technologies, and availability for both direct and indirect participants. As of November 2024, over 1,000 financial institutions had joined FedNow. In Q4 2024, the system processed more than 915,000 transactions worth nearly $20.2 billion.

The U.S. has another national instant payment system, Real-Time Payments (RTP). Launched in 2017, RTP differs from FedNow in that it’s operated by a private entity, The Clearing House (TCH). Otherwise, the systems are nearly identical, except RTP is more geared toward large banks, which provide access to the system for other market participants, similar to the U.K.’s FPS. More than 285,000 companies use RTP services monthly. In Q4 2024, RTP processed 98 million transactions worth over $80 billion.

PIX 

Sistema de Pagamentos Instantâneos (SPI), better known as PIX, is Brazil’s instant payment system, launched by Banco Central do Brasil in November 2020. It quickly became the primary payment method in the country, offering instant and secure transfers for both individuals and businesses.

As of late February 2025, PIX had over 900 participants, with nearly 100 more in the process of joining. The system processes transactions totaling approximately 2 trillion Brazilian reals (~$338 billion) per month, according to Banco Central do Brasil.

Instant Payment Systems in Other Countries

The systems mentioned above are among the largest and most well-known, but IPS solutions are actively expanding worldwide. For instance, India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) was launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in 2016. In January 2024, UPI processed 17 billion transactions worth nearly 23.48 trillion rupees (~$270 billion), with over 650 financial institutions participating, according to NPCI.

Other major IPSs include:  

• New Payments Platform (NPP) in Australia, which processed 2.2 billion transactions worth 1.4 trillion Australian dollars (~$890 billion) in 2024;
• Sistema de Pagos Electrónicos Interbancarios (SPEI) in Mexico, which processed 2 billion transactions totaling 17 trillion Mexican pesos (~$840 billion) in 2024;
• PromptPay in Thailand, which handled 10 billion transactions worth 16 trillion Thai baht (~$480 billion) in 2024;
• BLIK in Poland, which processed 1.5 billion transactions worth 600 billion Polish zlotys (~$155.8 billion) in 2024.

* Transaction volume estimates were gathered from publicly available sources.

According to Deloitte’s 2023 report, more than 70 countries had already implemented real-time payment systems (RTP), with the number continuing to grow. Analysts projected that by 2028, the volume of real-time payments in the U.S. could increase by anywhere from $18.9 trillion to $37 trillion, primarily driven by the shift of B2B transactions from checks and the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network to IPS.

Deloitte estimated the total volume of cross-border B2B payments in 2023 at $37 trillion. RTP systems are still primarily used at the national level, leaving room for stablecoin issuers to expand into the instant cross-border payments niche. More details on this topic, including the history and technical aspects of instant payment systems, can be found in the CP Media piece.