Real-Time Payments Help Banks Win the Whole Commercial Relationship

Instant payments are no longer simply a payments product. They are becoming commercial banking infrastructure.

That’s the case for financial institutions and their clients who are savvy to what real-time infrastructure can offer their corporate finance function. The PYMNTS Intelligence report “The Bankers’ Playbook: The ROl Case for Instant B2B Payments,” a collaboration with The Clearing House found that 88% of financial institutions surveyed rated the return on investment from real-time B2B payment rails as high or very high. Institutions offering instant payment capabilities reported stronger business-client relationships, better cash visibility and greater success attracting commercial customers.

Banks are no longer investing in instant payments simply to modernize transaction processing. They are using payment infrastructure to compete for the broader commercial banking relationship.

B2B Payments Become a Corporate Customer Acquisition Strategy

Commercial banking has traditionally revolved around lending, deposits and treasury management. Payments now sit at the center of all three.

The report showed that among 17 business outcomes measured, the two strongest advantages associated with instant B2B payments were improving a bank’s ability to support future embedded finance models and strengthening its position as a client’s primary financial institution. The competitive value lies less in processing payments faster than in becoming indispensable to a customer’s daily financial operations.

Among financial institutions offering at least one instant payment rail, 88% reported growing lifetime value from their business-client relationships over the past three years. Among institutions offering no instant payment rail, that figure fell to 73%. While the research did not establish causation, it identified instant payments adoption as a defining characteristic of higher-performing institutions.

Financial institutions using the RTP® network were more likely to report growing client lifetime value than institutions that had not adopted the rail, suggesting that payments infrastructure may influence long-term commercial relationship economics.

Rather than treating payments as an operational utility, banks are positioning payment capabilities as the foundation for broader commercial relationships.

Read the report: The Bankers’ Playbook: The ROl Case for Instant B2B Payments

Banks that continue measuring success in transactions processed may miss the larger opportunity. Increasingly, the winners will likely be the institutions that treat payment rails not as plumbing, but as strategic platforms for customer acquisition, treasury integration and long-term revenue growth.

Real-time payments allow financial institutions to embed themselves deeper inside corporate treasury operations by improving liquidity visibility, reconciliation and working capital management. Businesses benefit from knowing when suppliers are paid, gaining immediate confirmation of transactions and accessing richer remittance information. Banks, in turn, become more integrated into day-to-day financial decision-making rather than serving merely as transaction processors.

The report also suggested that simply enabling instant payments will not be enough for long. More than 90% of institutions that have yet to adopt the RTP network or FedNow® Service expect to do so within two years. As adoption becomes widespread, competitive differentiation will shift from offering instant payments to executing on them more effectively through new products, better data capabilities and deeper client integration.

The value proposition, then, is not simply, “We move your money faster.” It is, “We help you operate with less uncertainty.”

Banks are not merely making commercial payments faster. They are removing the batch-based assumptions on which much of commercial banking has long depended. Once money never sleeps, neither can the institution responsible for moving it.

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.