Payments Market Size

Payments Market Analysis

The Payments Market size is estimated at USD 2.85 trillion in 2024, and is expected to reach USD 4.78 trillion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 10.88% during the forecast period (2024-2029).

The key factor augmenting the market's growth include growing digitization, growth in E-commerce, rising internet penetration, and rapid adoption of mobile payments, among others.

• The global payment system is rapidly changing from cash to digital payment. Payments are becoming increasingly cashless and supporting the development of digital economies and innovation in payment infrastructure. Contactless payments are increasingly becoming a preferred payment method in various countries worldwide. Contactless payment systems at the POS, such as facial recognition, Quick Response (QR) codes, or Near-field Communication (NFCs), are changing the payment landscape across the globe. 
• According to Global Payments, consumers are more comfortable navigating the world through a digital lens after two years of shifting habits to working and shopping significantly online. Statistically, over half of the consumers from the company consider themselves more digital, with 39% shopping from a smartphone daily or weekly and 23% saying that they shop online at least daily.
• Furthermore, factors such as government financial inclusion initiatives that continue to encourage people to open bank accounts for the first time in developing countries and growing smartphone and internet penetration are further driving the growth of the global payments market.
• Innovation in payment technology is ongoing across the world. Real-time payments are common in many geographies, including India and China. For instance, in February 2023, India's Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, and Singapore's PayNow officially connected, allowing for a 'real-time payment linkage.' With this, Singapore became the first country with which cross-border Person to Person (P2P) payment facilities have been launched. Likewise, in January 2023, ACI Worldwide announced the launch of ACI Instant Pay, which enables merchants in the U.S. to accept online, mobile and in-store payments instantly, thus powering domestic and pan-regional real-time schemes reaching billions worldwide.
• Furthermore, digital and mobile payment apps are rapidly growing in many countries due to the ease of convenience these methods offer. Digital payments apps solutions such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and QR codes continue to grow. The growth of digital payments is further supported by increasing E-commerce worldwide.
• However, digital payment services have benefits but pose privacy and security risks that can harm consumers, merchants, markets, and nations and hamper growth. Payment systems must be redesigned to protect privacy and use unbreakable encryption and open standards. Data privacy legislation and a strong market regulator are also necessary.
• The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced major shifts in payment behavior worldwide: declining cash usage, migration from in-store to online commerce, adoption of instant payments, and adoption of digital payments. These shifts during COVID-19 created new opportunities for payment players to evolve into contactless and digital payment solutions.