Real-Time Payments Give Banks a Commercial Account Retention Tool

Business-account retention has traditionally depended on a web of services that become embedded in a company’s financial operations. Real-time payments (RTP) are giving banks another opportunity to deepen those ties, particularly when instant transactions become part of the treasury and payment processes businesses use every day.

The retention case is beginning to show up in the data.

A whopping 92% of financial institutions with growing business-client lifetime value rate the return on investment from real-time B2B payments as high or very high. Among institutions experiencing declining client lifetime value, just 40% say the same. The research also identifies stronger customer relationships among the significant benefits realized by institutions that have successfully implemented real-time payments.

Those findings in the August Real-Time Payments Tracker®, “From Adoption to Execution: How FIs Are Turning Real-Time Payments Into Competitive Advantage,” a collaboration between PYMNTS Intelligence and The Clearing House, do not establish that RTP directly reduces account churn. They do, however, connect successful instant-payment execution with a key measure of retention: whether the value of an institution’s existing business-client relationships is growing or declining.

That distinction matters as RTP becomes more widely available. Seventy-six percent of financial institutions (FIs) already provide access to the RTP® network, while another one in four have enabled the FedNow® Service, according to PYMNTS Intelligence. With instant payments becoming commonplace, keeping business clients can depend more heavily on how banks incorporate those capabilities into the broader relationship.

For business customers, some of the most important benefits are practical. Among FIs serving business customers exclusively, 28% identify payment tracking as a leading instant-payment benefit and 28% cite immediate payment confirmation. Both give businesses greater visibility into money movement and can become part of routine treasury operations.

Building Retention Into RTP

Execution (on the part of the banks) can also determine whether that opportunity materializes.

Fifty-two percent of FIs identify legacy technology as one of their two primary modernization obstacles. The report also identifies fragmented workflows, liquidity requirements, integration with core and treasury systems and staffing for 24/7 payments as challenges to implementation.

FIs can prioritize use cases that improve payment visibility, reduce manual processes and solve specific customer pain points, while coordinating implementation across payments, operations, treasury and executive leadership.

The report also recommends changing how success is measured. Rather than relying primarily on transaction volume, banks can track customer satisfaction and relationship growth alongside operational efficiency and payment adoption.

For banks, that creates a clearer retention test for real-time payments. The relevant evidence will come from whether RTP becomes useful enough in clients’ everyday financial operations to accompany stronger, longer and more valuable business relationships.

At PYMNTS Intelligence, we work with businesses to uncover insights that fuel intelligent, data-driven discussions on changing customer expectations, a more connected economy and the strategic shifts necessary to achieve outcomes. With rigorous research methodologies and unwavering commitment to objective quality, we offer trusted data to grow your business. As our partner, you’ll have access to our diverse team of PhDs, researchers, data analysts, number crunchers, subject matter veterans and editorial experts.