Payments, SMB Finance

SMBs are increasingly opting for real-time payments, leaving credit cards behind as their preferred choice

  • Healthcare SMBs are increasingly turning to RTP payments for A2A transfers, surpassing credit cards and checks in usage over the past year.
  • As healthcare provider businesses increasingly integrate instant payments, two notable factors stand out that shape the adoption and usage of real-time payment rails across this sector.
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SMBs are increasingly opting for real-time payments, leaving credit cards behind as their preferred choice

The RTP payments network reached a milestone by processing over 1 million payments in a single day on September 1, 2023. EWA and gig worker payments emerged as the network’s primary drivers, surpassing account-to-account (A2A) transfers.

However, in the healthcare sector, small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) have increasingly turned to RTP payments for A2A transfers, showing a surge compared to credit cards and checks over the past year, according to a new report by PYMNTS.

Real-time payments are the preferred choice for 83% of SMB healthcare providers, outshining any individual payment method in terms of usage. 38% of healthcare provider SMBs identified a real-time payment method as their primary payment rail with instant bank account-to-account payments topping the list at 15%, closely followed by instant PayPal at 13%.

As healthcare provider businesses increasingly integrate instant payments, the report highlights two primary factors that influence the adoption and usage of real-time payment rails across this sector.

National and Regional banks are the preferred choice for real-time payment rails: Healthcare provider SMBs exhibit a greater propensity to adopt a real-time payment system as their primary payment method when they are affiliated with a national or regional bank, rather than a local bank or credit union (CU).


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