Pandemic leads to surge in real-time payment transactions in 2020

Real-time payment transactions rose by 48% last year, according to ACI Worldwide Research.

Real-time payments saw a surge in the Lion City, as the pandemic swept the globe in 2020.

According to the latest global report from international thinktank ACI Worldwide, real-time payments in Singapore rose by 48% in 2020, at a total of 138.38 million transactions.

The value of these transactions rose by 40% to $154b in 2020, from the $110b recorded in 2019.

"The pandemic has cast the spotlight on the importance of digital payments and robust payment infrastructures, condensing a decade of anticipated innovation into one year and creating human behavioural changes that will not reverse as we emerge from the crisis," said ACI Worldwide chief product officer Jeremy Wilmot in a statement.

Singapore also recorded a historic high in the adoption of mobile wallets to 70.9% in 2020, trumping the 56.9% and 27.5% recorded in 2019 and 2018 respectively.

ACI expects 2 23.21% compound annual growth rate for Singapore from 2020 to 2025.