Europe Real Time Payments Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends & Forecasts (2025 - 2030)

Europe Real Time Payments Market is Segmented by Payment Type (P2P, P2B / C2B), Component (Platform / Software, Services (Consulting, Integration, Managed)), Enterprise Size (Large Enterprises, Small and Mid-Size Enterprises (SMEs)), End-User Industry (Banking and Financial Services (BFSI), Retail and ECommerce, Telecom and Media, and More), and Country. The Market Forecasts are Provided in Terms of Value (USD).

Europe Real Time Payments Market Size and Share

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Europe Real Time Payments Market Analysis by Mordor Intelligence

The Europe real time payments market stands at USD 7.21 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 13.49 billion by 2030, expanding at a 10.65% CAGR. Rapid regulatory harmonization—most notably the Instant Payments Regulation mandating cost-parity for euro-denominated instant transfers—has removed the EUR 2.19 (USD 2.52) average premium that previously restrained adoption. [1]European Central Bank, “TIPS Statistics 2024,” ecb.europa.eu The pricing reset forces banks to compete on service quality, triggering accelerated investment in API connectivity, risk controls and liquidity optimisation. Pan-European pilots such as the SEPA Payment Account Access (SPAA) scheme are unlocking premium data-sharing revenue streams, while large corporates fast-track ISO 20022 migration to achieve real-time cash visibility. Corporates’ need for unified, cross-border cash pooling aligns with regulators’ goal of friction-free Single Euro Payments Area infrastructure, giving the Europe real time payments market unique momentum relative to other regions. Poland’s 16.5% CAGR and the United Kingdom’s 27.8% revenue share underline the region’s blend of fast-growing challenger markets and scale-oriented incumbents, sustaining a balanced outlook for providers across software, services and clearing infrastructure.

Key Report Takeaways

  • By payment type: P2P transfers led with 40.2% of the Europe real time payments market share in 2024, whereas P2B/C2B volumes are projected to expand at a 14.3% CAGR through 2030.
  • By component: Platform/Software captured 63.1% revenue in 2024; the Services segment is forecast to grow at 15.9% CAGR as institutions outsource compliance and integration.
  • By enterprise size: Large Enterprises held 55.6% share in 2024, while SMEs are forecast to grow at 12.6% CAGR on the back of simplified onboarding via pan-regional wallets.
  • By end-user industry: Banking and Financial Services controlled 38.7% in 2024, but Retail and eCommerce is advancing at a 14.2% CAGR as merchants switch to account-to-account rails.
  • By geography: The United Kingdom dominated with 27.8% share in 2024; Poland leads growth at 16.5% CAGR through 2030 on the strength of BLIK and Express Elixir adoption.

Segment Analysis

By Payment Type: Commercial Volumes Redefine the Use-Case Mix

P2P transfers controlled 40.2% of 2024 volumes; however, P2B/C2B flows are forecast to grow 14.3% annually through 2030. The Europe real time payments market size for P2B transactions is expected to add USD 3 billion in incremental revenue between 2025 and 2030 as merchants pivot away from card interchange. Wero’s July 2024 launch in Germany and Belgium showcases the strategic sequencing from P2P to online checkout, an expansion that brings competitive pressure to global card schemes. Emerging multi-scheme routing—Spain’s Bizum, Italy’s Bancomat Pay and Portugal’s MB Way—illustrates regional collaboration designed to maintain domestic sovereignty while meeting cross-border consumer expectations. For merchants, account-to-account rails lower acceptance costs and improve settlement speed, strengthening loyalty propositions and solidifying the Europe real time payments market as a credible alternative to established card networks. 

Second-order dynamics suggest a gradual re-balancing of revenue pools. Payment‐service providers able to deliver single-API access across multiple instant schemes are best positioned to capture scaled P2B volumes. As Request-to-Pay matures, utilities and public entities will shift from episodic batch collections to interactive billing, adding recurring traffic that sustains infrastructure utilisation. The Europe real time payments market therefore pivots from consumer-initiated transfers to enterprise-led cash management, accelerating monetisation potential across service layers.

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By Component: Services Outpace Software as the Integration Race Intensifies

Platform/Software licences represented 63.1% of 2024 spending, but Services are forecast to grow 15.9% CAGR. Mandatory eurozone Send-capability by October 2025 drives a wave of consulting engagements and managed-service contracts, moving the Europe real time payments market size for Services from USD 2.3 billion in 2025 to USD 4.8 billion by 2030. Tier-1 banks frequently adopt “lift-and-shift” strategies—modernising legacy payment hubs while outsourcing non-differentiating functions such as ISO 20022 mapping and scheme certification. ACI Worldwide’s cloud-native deployments and IBM Z-based scaling examples prove demand for resilient, high-volume platforms complemented by expert service wrappers. 

Institutions with thin IT budgets increasingly favour shared-service utilities, allowing them to meet regulatory timelines without heavy capital spend. This shift also opens cross-selling potential for analytics, fraud management and value-added overlay services. As real-time volumes rise, continuous performance tuning becomes critical, keeping specialised integrators in constant demand and reinforcing the Europe real time payments market’s service-centric revenue trajectory.

By Enterprise Size: SMEs Catch Up Through Simplified Wallet Onboarding

Large Enterprises retained 55.6% volume share in 2024, yet SME adoption is climbing at 12.6% CAGR. The Europe real time payments market share held by SMEs is projected to approach 38% by 2030 as regulatory cost-parity and one-click onboarding erase historical disadvantages. Unified wallets such as Wero eliminate multi-bank integration overheads, while open-banking APIs standardise pay-by-link and instant payout functions. Germany’s projected USD 9 billion open-banking revenue pool by 2030 signals how standardised connectivity translates into concrete SME demand for plug-and-play payment modules. 

SMEs focus on cash-flow acceleration rather than complex treasury optimisation. Instant receipt of funds reduces reliance on overdrafts and unlocks inventory cycles. Financial institutions have responded with bundled offerings that combine identity verification, e-money accounts and settlement management, embedding value-added compliance services. As SME penetration grows, transaction diversity and volume density improve, making the Europe real time payments industry more attractive for fintech entrants.

Europe Real Time Payments Market
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By End-User Industry: Retail and eCommerce Leads Volume Upswing

Banking and Financial Services accounted for 38.7% of 2024 spending as institutions upgraded internal rails and customer interfaces; however, Retail and eCommerce payments are expanding at 14.2% CAGR. Smartphones facilitated 53% of European online sales in 2024, creating natural affinity with tap-to-pay and pay-by-bank checkout flows. [4] Visa, “Visa Protect for A2A Payments,” visa.com Unified commerce strategies championed by Worldline, where every sales channel exchanges data in real time, rely on instant settlement to sync inventory, loyalty and refunds. Healthcare and Telecom remain niche adopters, using instant payouts primarily for claims and subscription billing. 

Visa’s launch of AI-powered account-to-account fraud protection underscores how network vendors adapt existing risk assets to the new rail, offering merchants continuity of brand while reducing chargeback exposure. As retailers normalise instant refunds and payouts, customer experience gaps between traditional and real-time rails widen, further driving volumes inside the Europe real time payments market.

Geography Analysis

The United Kingdom maintained 27.8% of the Europe real time payments market in 2024 thanks to mature Faster Payments rails and active open-banking regulation. The National Payments Vision promotes account-to-account consumer payments, and early adopters report higher conversion and lower costs than card equivalents. Yet post-Brexit exclusion from SEPA instant schemes forces UK PSPs to manage dual technical stacks, raising operational overhead. The Financial Conduct Authority’s safeguarding and APP-scam reimbursement rules elevate compliance but reinforce user trust, sustaining volumes. 

Germany and France form the industrial core. German open-banking revenues are forecast to hit USD 9 billion by 2030, underpinned by Berlin Group API standards and high smartphone penetration. TARGET2’s daily throughput of 350,000 payments worth EUR 1.7 trillion (USD 1.84 trillion) demonstrates systemic scale ready for instant overlays. France benefits from Wero’s August 2025 launch and national policy to reduce dependence on non-European schemes, steering domestic issuers toward pan-regional wallet acceptance. 

Poland exemplifies high-velocity adoption, growing at 16.5% CAGR on the back of BLIK’s 20.2% transaction gain and Express Elixir’s user expansion. Government investment in digital-economy initiatives and ISO 20022 migration of core clearing systems provide long-term structural support. Spain and Italy benefit from Bizum-Bancomat Pay cooperation and TIPS connectivity but must still elevate consumer awareness to Nordic levels. Collectively these dynamics indicate sustained geographic diversification, widening the addressable base for providers active in the Europe real time payments market.

Competitive Landscape

Competition remains moderate-fragmented, shaped more by regulatory mandates than organic market cycles. Direct-connection fintechs such as Adyen posted 34.5% revenue CAGR (2019-2023), whereas heritage processors like Worldpay grew only 3% year-over-year in Q4 2023, revealing a structural advantage for single-platform architectures capable of rapid local scheme onboarding. Global Payments’ planned acquisition of Worldpay, if approved, would create the largest UK merchant acquirer with 30% share, signalling consolidation pressure among legacy firms seeking scale economies to fund compliance and innovation. 

Incumbent banks pursue vertical integration: BNP Paribas extended its instant clearing capabilities to corporate treasury clients, bundling cash-forecasting analytics. Fintech entrants differentiate through specialist services—Banking Circle offers low-value cross-border instant payouts, whereas Trustly focuses on merchant A2A checkout across 30 markets. European Payments Initiative’s co-ordinated rollout of Wero underscores a strategic sovereignty agenda, giving regional banks a stake in consumer wallets and merchant checkout, thereby challenging global card networks’ dominance in the Europe real time payments market. 

White-space opportunities emerge around cross-border interoperability and SME enablement. Providers building AI-driven risk engines for APP-fraud detection or offering managed liquidity services across TIPS and RT1 pools stand to capture premium pricing. The forthcoming digital euro could re-shape value pools; European pure-plays collectively added USD 23 billion in market value after positive CBDC updates, highlighting investor expectation that native players can monetise central-bank digital infrastructure more effectively than non-European rivals.

Europe Real Time Payments Industry Leaders

  1. ACI Worldwide Inc.​

  2. Fiserv Inc.​

  3. Paypal Holdings Inc.​

  4. Mastercard Inc.​

  5. Visa Inc.

  6. *Disclaimer: Major Players sorted in no particular order
Europe Real Time Payments Market Concentration
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Recent Industry Developments

  • May 2025: Global Payments announced a bid for Worldpay to form the world’s largest merchant acquirer. Strategically, the move seeks transaction scale and combined scheme connectivity to match fintech agility while distributing rising AML and APP-fraud compliance costs across a larger volume base.
  • April 2025: The European Central Bank upgraded its cross-border payment services, processing 4.1 million annual transactions across 200 plus jurisdictions. The enhancement embeds FX risk-management modules, positioning ECB services as a low-friction settlement layer aligned with instant-payment timelines.
  • March 2025: The European Court of Auditors’ Special Report on Digital Payments highlighted EUR 1 trillion (USD 1.08 trillion) in annual EU digital payment value, recommending clearer price-intervention guidelines to ensure instant-payment access parity—a recommendation likely to accelerate fee caps in the Europe real time payments market.
  • January 2025: Eurozone banks became legally obliged to receive instant credit transfers, with send-capability due by October 2025. The mandate neutralises premium pricing and obliges verification-of-payee, pushing banks toward fraud-resilient infrastructure investments.

Table of Contents for Europe Real Time Payments Industry Report

1. INTRODUCTION

  • 1.1 Study Assumptions and Market Definition
  • 1.2 Scope of the Study

2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

4. MARKET LANDSCAPE

  • 4.1 Market Overview
  • 4.2 Market Drivers
    • 4.2.1 Adoption of Pan-European Instant SEPA Mandate (SCT Inst)
    • 4.2.2 PSD3 and SPAA-Driven Open-Banking Use-Cases Drives the Market
    • 4.2.3 Corporate Treasury Shift to ISO 20022 for Instant Liquidity Drives the Market
    • 4.2.4 Rise of Request-to-Pay (R2P) for Utilities and Public Sector Drives the Market
  • 4.3 Market Restraints
    • 4.3.1 Fragmented RTP Clearing Infrastructure (TIPS vs. RT1 vs. Domestic) Hinders the Market
    • 4.3.2 Payment Fraud such as Authorized Push Payment Scams
    • 4.3.3 High AML/SCA Compliance Costs Hinders the Market
  • 4.4 Value Chain Analysis
  • 4.5 Regulatory Outlook
  • 4.6 Porter’s Five Forces Analysis
    • 4.6.1 Bargaining Power of Suppliers
    • 4.6.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers
    • 4.6.3 Threat of New Entrants
    • 4.6.4 Threat of Substitutes
    • 4.6.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry
  • 4.7 Pricing Analysis
  • 4.8 Evolution of Europe’s Payments Landscape
  • 4.9 Cashless-Transaction Growth Trends
  • 4.10 Assessment of Macro Economic Trends on the Market
  • 4.11 RTP Share of All Transactions – Volumes and Values (Country-level)
  • 4.12 RTP Share of Non-Cash Transactions – Volumes

5. MARKET SIZE AND GROWTH FORECASTS (VALUES)

  • 5.1 By Payment Type
    • 5.1.1 P2P
    • 5.1.2 P2B / C2B
  • 5.2 By Component
    • 5.2.1 Platform / Software
    • 5.2.2 Services (Consulting, Integration, Managed)
  • 5.3 By Enterprise Size
    • 5.3.1 Large Enterprises
    • 5.3.2 Small and Mid-Size Enterprises (SMEs)
  • 5.4 By End-User Industry
    • 5.4.1 Banking and Financial Services (BFSI)
    • 5.4.2 Retail and eCommerce
    • 5.4.3 Telecom and Media
    • 5.4.4 Healthcare
    • 5.4.5 Other End-user Industries
  • 5.5 By Country
    • 5.5.1 United Kingdom
    • 5.5.2 Germany
    • 5.5.3 France
    • 5.5.4 Spain
    • 5.5.5 Italy
    • 5.5.6 Poland
    • 5.5.7 Rest of Europe

6. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

  • 6.1 Market Concentration
  • 6.2 Strategic Moves (MandA, JV, Product Launches)
  • 6.3 Market Share Analysis
  • 6.4 Company Profiles (includes Global-level Overview, Market-level Overview, Core Segments, Financials, Strategic Info, Market Rank/Share, Products and Services, Recent Developments)
    • 6.4.1 PayPal Holdings Inc.
    • 6.4.2 Fiserv Inc.
    • 6.4.3 ACI Worldwide Inc.
    • 6.4.4 Mastercard Inc.
    • 6.4.5 Visa Inc.
    • 6.4.6 FIS Global
    • 6.4.7 Adyen NV
    • 6.4.8 Nexi Group (Nets)
    • 6.4.9 Worldline SA
    • 6.4.10 Apple Inc.
    • 6.4.11 Klarna Bank AB
    • 6.4.12 Tink AB (Visa)
    • 6.4.13 Finastra
    • 6.4.14 Volante Technologies Inc.
    • 6.4.15 Temenos AG
    • 6.4.16 Modulr
    • 6.4.17 TrueLayer
    • 6.4.18 Trustly Group
    • 6.4.19 Banking Circle
    • 6.4.20 GoCardless

7. MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE OUTLOOK

  • 7.1 White-Space and Unmet-Need Assessment
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Europe Real Time Payments Market Report Scope

Real-time payments, also known as immediate, instant, or faster payments, guarantee the immediate availability of funds to the recipient. Real-time payments offer wide-ranging benefits for people, businesses, and society. Real-time payments facilitate better cash management and balance visibility and ease the move to electronic payments by offering a viable alternative to cash.

The European real time payments market is segmented by payment type (P2P, P2B) and country (UK, Germany, France, Italy, and the Rest of Europe). The market sizes and forecasts are provided in terms of value (USD) for all the above segments.

By Payment Type P2P
P2B / C2B
By Component Platform / Software
Services (Consulting, Integration, Managed)
By Enterprise Size Large Enterprises
Small and Mid-Size Enterprises (SMEs)
By End-User Industry Banking and Financial Services (BFSI)
Retail and eCommerce
Telecom and Media
Healthcare
Other End-user Industries
By Country United Kingdom
Germany
France
Spain
Italy
Poland
Rest of Europe
By Payment Type
P2P
P2B / C2B
By Component
Platform / Software
Services (Consulting, Integration, Managed)
By Enterprise Size
Large Enterprises
Small and Mid-Size Enterprises (SMEs)
By End-User Industry
Banking and Financial Services (BFSI)
Retail and eCommerce
Telecom and Media
Healthcare
Other End-user Industries
By Country
United Kingdom
Germany
France
Spain
Italy
Poland
Rest of Europe
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Key Questions Answered in the Report

How big is the Europe real time payments market in 2025?

The Europe real time payments market size is USD 7.21 billion in 2025 and is forecast to reach USD 13.49 billion by 2030 at a 10.65% CAGR.

Which segment is growing fastest?

P2B/C2B transactions represent the fastest-growing payment type, advancing at a 14.3% CAGR through 2030 as merchants migrate away from card-based fees.

Why is Poland considered a high-growth country?

Poland posts a 16.5% CAGR due to BLIK’s 20.2% transaction growth and Express Elixir’s expanding user base, supported by proactive ISO 20022 migration and government digital-economy funding.

What are the main challenges to instant-payment adoption?

Infrastructure fragmentation among TIPS, RT1 and domestic schemes and rising Authorized Push Payment fraud are the primary restraints, shaving an estimated 3.9 percentage points off projected CAGR.

How are banks monetising open-banking APIs under PSD3?

PSD3 and SPAA introduce remuneration models that let banks charge for premium data services, such as Dynamic Recurring Payments, turning compliance investments into new revenue streams.

Will the digital euro disrupt existing instant-payment providers?

Providers anticipate the digital euro could boost volumes by embedding central-bank money in retail wallets; firms with agile, API-centric architectures are best placed to integrate the new instrument rapidly.

Page last updated on: June 23, 2025

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