British banks must strengthen trust in real-time payments or risk falling behind in the fintech race, as new figures reveal UK confidence lags behind other markets.

Fresh research from credit and data analytics firm FICO’s Scams Impact Survey has found that nearly a quarter (23%) of UK consumers are unsure if real-time payments (RTP) processes include enough security checks, with just 35% considering RTP to be more secure than a credit card, well below the 51% global average. 

These concerns are driving lower RTP adoption in the UK, where 79% of consumers have sent and 73% have received RTPs, well below the 91% and 89% averages across the fourteen countries and 12,000 individuals surveyed by FICO.

Meanwhile, the survey found that just 16% of UK respondents have sent RTP from a business to a person, compared to the global average of 31%, and that only 28% plan to increase their RTP usage over the next year, falling far short of the 44% global average.

FICO said that as RTP usage continues to grow, consumers will expect their banks to equip them with the tools, education, and automated fail-safes to help prevent scam losses, which have already been identified as a growing concern for UK consumers.

More than 18% of UK consumers have sent RTP after receiving a scam warning from their bank, surpassing the 14% global average, and while more than half (54%) admitted they were most to blame in falling victim, nearly a third blame either the sending bank (19%) or the receiving bank (13%).

According to FICO’s report, the surge in real-time payment scams and the flood of warnings alongside have contributed to consumers’ growing wariness of using RTP, with more than half (58%) wanting better fraud detection systems as a result.

However, this awareness represents an opportunity for banks to build consumer knowledge and confidence to help prevent losses as the use of RTP slowly gathers pace.     

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“While there remains some slight uncertainty in the UK market around RTP security, it is clear to us that, based on global and local consumer trends, banks should expect usage to continue to increase and diversify,” said James Roche, principal fraud consultant for FICO in EMEA.

“At the same time, however, there needs to be more education around the benefits of RTP, how they counterbalance fraud checks and regulatory changes. 

“This presents an opportunity for banks to communicate risks and warnings to their customers while providing a strong scam defence.”