What began as the digitization of consumer payments is now reshaping the broader flow of commerce across retail, commercial, treasury, and cross-border transaction ecosystems.
According to new research by Capgemini Research Institute, new digital instruments now represent a substantial share of transactions and are expected to expand further, driven by stablecoins and digital currencies.
In 2025, new digital payment methods accounted for 26% of business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) payment volume. The figure marks a 13-point increase from 2020.
These payment methods are capturing B2B and B2C market share from traditional methods. In 2020, traditional payment methods accounted for 87% of B2B and B2C payment volume, but by 2025, that share had fallen to 74%.
By 2030, traditional methods are projected to drop to 64%, with credit transfers and cards declining by 2 and 6 points, respectively, while checks may nearly disappear.
Meanwhile, new digital instruments are expected to climb 10 points to 36% by 2030. This growth will stem from instant payments and e-money rising 6 points, alongside intelligent money, including stablecoins, tokenized deposits, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which is set to make up 4% of total B2B and B2C payment volume.
A conducive regulatory landscape
Accelerated intelligent money is progressing through technological advances and regulations that generate a cross-market ripple effect, boosting confidence in these instruments.
In Singapore, the central bank began directly regulating single-currency stablecoin issuers in August 2023. In parallel, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is advancing wholesale CBDC development for interbank settlement and launched BLOOM in October 2025 to support interoperable, multi-currency digital asset settlement across domestic and cross-border markets.
In Hong Kong, regulators introduced the Stablecoins Ordinance, which took effect in August 2025 and established a licensing regime for fiat-referenced stablecoin issuers. This ran alongside the second phase of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s e-HKD CBDC pilot, which expanded testing of programmable money and tokenized asset settlement.
A focus B2B payments
Existing infrastructure limits are also creating challenges for corporate B2B payment operations, increasing demand for improved systems. According to Capgemini, a typical large corporation operates in 14 markets, maintains 11 banking relationships, and conducts 34% of its B2B volume cross-border.
The firm conducted a banking executive survey, polling 300 leaders in May 2026 and June 2026 across nine markets, and found that 74% described cross-border payments as slow, costly, and unpredictable. 59% noted strain in accounts payable and receivable from longer buyer terms and pressure to pay suppliers, and 55% reported reconciliation delays from legacy systems.
To address these challenges, banks are increasingly turning their attention to the larger B2B opportunity where transaction values are substantially higher and payment requirements are considerably more complex. Over the past three years, 60% of the banks polled in the Banking Executive Survey prioritized B2B payment innovation.
However, the expected benefits have not materialized for banking customers. Only 32% of corporate clients reported being satisfied with their primary banking partners.
Deploying intelligent money
Against this backdrop, the study found that intelligent money is moving from experimentation to targeted deployment within financial institutions.
Most banks in the survey have already started experimenting with stablecoins, which are mostly at the monitoring stage. Tokenized deposits, meanwhile, have advanced toward active piloting, while wholesale CBDC sits between monitoring and piloting.
Overall, the study found that instant payment rails remain a strategic priority for banks, building on investments already made across markets and use cases. Tokenized deposits emerged as the leading near-term priority.
APAC emerges as the fastest-growing market
Over the past decade, non-cash transactions have grown nearly fivefold globally, surging from 438.8 billion in 2015 to more than 1.9 trillion in 2025. In 2026, that amount is expected to climb 14.6% year-over-year (YoY) to 2.2 trillion transactions. These transactions are set to double by 2030, exceeding 4 trillion.
Through 2030, APAC will represent roughly half of global non-cash transactions. The region will maintain the strongest annual growth, at 24.9% between 2025 and 2026, then easing to 18.8% annually through 2030 though remaining above the global average of 15.3%.
APAC’s position as the fastest-growing market for cashless payments is supported by large-scale platform ecosystems, extensive merchant digitization, and mature digital payment infrastructures such as the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in India, PayNow in Singapore, and PromptPay in Thailand.
China hosts several deeply integrated super-app ecosystems, such as Tencent’s WeChat and Alibaba, which merge messaging, commerce, merchant services, social media, mini-programs, payments, and financial products.
In Southeast Asia, platforms like Grab and GoJek link mobility, delivery, and financial services. These platforms operate across multiple national markets, adjusting to local regulations and consumer behavior.
Launched in 2016, India’s UPI has grown into the world’s largest real-time payment system, reaching 129.2 billion annual transactions. Thailand’s PromptPay, introduced the same year, holds third place with 20.4 billion transactions each year.
Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by rawpixel.com via Magnific
