Real-time payments

Keep pace with the speed of life

Mastercard’s portfolio of real-time payment solutions allow people, businesses, governments and banks to pay and get paid instantly.

Real-time payments fuel the digital agenda and enable innovation for domestic and cross-border payment systems and schemes.

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To find out more about our real-time payments solutions, contact Kris Kubiena

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Real-time payment infrastructure

Instant Payment Service

Instant Payment Service is a real-time clearing and settlement infrastructure with ISO 20022 messaging capabilities. It powers Faster Payments in the UK, Real Time Payments in the USA, PromptPay in Thailand and FAST in Singapore. 

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Real-time payment applications

Mastercard Send™

Mastercard Send™ enables near real-time payments to and from billions of card, bank and digital accounts and cash withdrawal locations in over 100 countries.

Learn more at mastercard.com

Pay by Account

Pay by Account allows people and businesses to make payments online or in-store directly from their bank account. It is available to UK financial institutions as Pay by Bank App, and live with Barclays and HSBC.

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Bill Pay Exchange

Bill Pay Exchange allows people to view, manage and pay household and other personal bills within their financial service provider’s app.

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Real-time Credits

Real-time Credits allows financial institutions and merchants to deliver instant funds to a debit card account, making the money immediately available to spend.

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Real-time payment services

Real-time payments consulting

We offer technical advice and analysis to support your real-time payments project throughout its lifecycle, from project initiation to effective operation.

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Democratising access to real-time payments with managed services

Mastercard’s regional managed services for real-time payments significantly lower costs and other barriers to entry for banks, central banks, operators and governments looking to modernise their payment systems.

Now launching in Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Europe, and soon in the Middle East & Africa. Download our position paper to learn more.

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What are real-time payments?

Real-time payments guarantee immediate availability of funds to the beneficiary of the transaction.

A number of pseudo-real-time payment solutions are available to the market, which post immediately. Major variations occur with the frequency of settlement, which can be in real-time or periodically throughout the day.

What are the benefits of real-time payments?

Real-time payments offer wide-ranging benefits for people, businesses and society.

Real-time payments:

  • guarantee immediate availability of funds to the beneficiary
  • support better cash management and improved liquidity
  • ease the transition to electronic payments