Testing Real-Time Payments and Bank Integrations
The pace of innovation in fintech is nonstop, and when it comes to payments, the bar keeps rising higher. Whether it’s a refund, a peer-to-peer payment or a real-time payout from a gig economy platform, customers don’t just want their money fast — they want it now. To a customer, an “instant transfer” is a promise, not hyperbole.
As fintech brands and financial institutions roll out new payment capabilities, they must validate that they meet the demands of the customers requesting them in the first place. In particular, real-time payments (RTP), banking integrations and tokenized checkout options like click-to-pay open new avenues to connect with customers or thrust them away. You cannot afford to launch these innovations without validating them in real-world conditions. You’re not just testing code — you’re testing trust.
Let’s explore each of these areas and set the table stakes for brands to compete.
The rapid rise of real-time payments
If it feels like RTP is everywhere right now, that’s because it is — globally and on the consciousness of consumers who interact with payment systems.
According to ACI Worldwide, there were more than 266 billion real-time payment transactions in 2023 — a 42% year-over-year increase. Mordor Intelligence projects the global RTP market will hit $156 billion by 2030, expanding at a 35% compound annual growth rate. Some markets prioritize real-time payments more than others, though demand is on the rise everywhere. In markets like India, according to ACI Worldwide, 84% of all electronic transactions are now real time.
Consumer expectations for RTP leave no room for lag. Historically, payments went out in batches — maybe twice a day or overnight. But now, financial services providers push transactions in a matter of minutes, and users expect those funds to show up within 30 seconds to a minute, max.
If that money isn’t in the account immediately, people assume something went wrong, or that the money was somehow lost. This is a recipe for churn, especially if a competitor provides a more seamless RTP experience.
Validating real-time payments
From the outside, real-time payments look simple. From the inside, they’re anything but.
To test real-time payment functionality effectively, you need to validate both sides of the transaction — initiation and receipt. That means checking everything from transaction descriptors and card network responses to validating whether funds land in the destination account on time. And let me tell you, this can’t be done with just sandbox environments or synthetic payment data, which can result in false positives.
Even simple penny tests — low-value transactions — across various financial institutions, cards and devices can quickly validate how systems perform in the wild. Having a level of real-world assurance is important. The second something in the payment flow breaks or lags, it’s not just a support ticket — it’s a reputational and revenue risk. Treat RTP with the urgency it deserves to protect your bottom line.
Ebook
Digital Payment Testing: 4 Ways to Ensure Successful Transactions
Learn how to test with real payment instruments to help provide a seamless omnichannel experience to build customer trust.
As recently as a few years ago, bank integrations were mostly about convenience. Instead of manually entering routing and account numbers, users could simply log into their bank to connect. That functionality is still helpful, but now the expectations are much higher.
Companies want to go deeper. If I’m a lender, I want to validate more than just your credit score. I want to see that you’ve had consistent direct deposits for the last 12 months. I want to know you don’t have a history of overdrafts. That’s the kind of insight bank integrations can provide — if those integrations actually work.
Here’s where it gets tricky: everybody expects integrations with financial services behemoths like Chase or Bank of America to work. But what about that local credit union in rural Arkansas? That user wants (and deserves) the same streamlined experience. Failure to support a customer’s bank means you lose them — and leave money on the table.
That’s why so many of our clients at Applause are focused on expanding coverage outside the top-tier banks, making sure that even small financial institutions integrate seamlessly. And we help facilitate that peace of mind by recruiting real in-market testers who match their account criteria to follow user flows and validate functionality.
The complexity behind merchants, networks and devices
Payments don’t flow through a single pipe. They’re routed through a maze of merchants, processors, issuers and card networks. And if even one of those links fails, the user’s entire experience breaks down.
The millions of permutations in the payment landscape dwarf other industries — not that the challenge of ensuring quality is easy for them either. Every merchant might use a different integration strategy. They could work with multiple providers, put fallback logic in place and introduce their own quirks into the flow.
Cross-border payments are exploding too, making validation even more challenging. EY projects the global cross-border market will reach $290 trillion by 2030. These aren’t all real-time payments yet, but peer-to-peer transfers and remittance services are definitely getting faster — and expectations are following suit.
Open banking standards and regional compliance regulations add another layer of complexity. Whether it’s PSD2 in Europe or impending U.S. frameworks, fintechs must make sure they’re staying on the right side of the rules while also maintaining great user experiences.
Our clients turn to Applause to navigate these waters — helping their payment flows function as expected in the regions they operate in.
Build for longevity
The work doesn’t stop at launch. With RTP, ongoing regression testing is essential. We recommend lightweight, repeatable validation methods that keep costs low while maintaining confidence.
For bank integrations, it’s usually heavier testing up front. Once the integration is in place, it doesn’t need to be revisited as often as RTP, unless the system changes. But early on, you’ve got to make sure that every connection — big or small — is stable, secure and pulls the right data.
It all comes down to trust
At the end of the day, building great fintech products isn’t just about pushing features — it’s about making sure they work everywhere, every time, for everyone. This is how you build trust with customers. And that’s where Applause comes in.
What sets us apart is our ability to validate payment systems in the real world. We’re not relying on lab environments or simulated conditions. We’re working with a global community of real users, in real markets, using real bank accounts and payment instruments — whether that’s debit cards, digital wallets or local systems like Pix in Brazil. That kind of in-market testing is critical when you’re dealing with the intricacies of real-time transactions and bank integrations.
We uncover issues that only surface in live conditions: incorrect instant transfers, failures inside banking apps, real-time balance updates that lag or don’t show up at all. These aren’t bugs you’ll catch in controlled environments — they’re issues rooted in the complexity of regional infrastructure and fragmented banking ecosystems.
With our global reach, we can assess how your payment experiences perform across a wide range of users and institutions. That’s especially important as you scale to new markets and need to meet local expectations for speed, reliability and integration quality.
And it’s not just about finding the problems — it’s about giving you the insight to fix them. Our detailed test reporting offers clear, actionable feedback so you can determine how to resolve issues quickly and confidently, long before they ever reach your customers.
In this space, trust is everything. You might only get one shot to prove that your platform works as promised. With Applause, you can have greater visibility into your real-time payment systems and bank integrations to gain confidence your products are ready — not just for launch, but for the real world.
Webinar
End-to-End Payment Testing: Everything You Need to Know
Go beyond sandbox environments and boost reliability of payment transactions across all financial institutions and devices.
11 min