Realtime payments are at the top of the innovation wish list for most banking professionals.

According to a survey from TD Bank, released today, 42% of payment professionals cited integration of realtime payments system as the number one factor that could have the greatest impact on the industry.

Support for realtime payments is steadily increasing among banks. Back in June, Bank Innovation reported that 86% of banks expect realtime payments to improve customer service, while last year only 61% believed that to be true.

The process to be able to offer realtime payments is an extensive one. The concept of realtime payments was introduced more than three years ago, but the Clearing House (TCH) anticipates that all banks and credit unions will not be live with it until 2020 at the earliest.

So far, certain large banks such as PNC, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of New York Mellon, U.S. Bank, SunTrust, and BB&T have a realtime system in place. For this, they have been working with third-party service providers and core processors to create a plan that would give the bank a competitive edge among others in offering their customers realtime payments.

One way to do this is through APIs, Jordan Lampe, head of strategic projects at payments platform Dwolla, previously told Bank Innovation in June. At the time, Bank Innovation reported that 87% of banks already had plans in place to develop open APIs for the RTP initiative.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the TD Bank survey found that many industry veterans view existing infrastructure as a major roadblock. The survey found that 36% of respondents mentioned updating legacy infrastructure within banks as crucial for any type of payments-related innovation, including realtime payments.

In the report, Rick Burke, head of corporate products and services at TD Bank, stated:

One of the largest impediments to today’s payments industry is that change is happening faster than organizations can realistically accommodate it. Sending and receiving corporate payments is a complex process and one that it is not yet as nimble as consumer payments. As more CFOs and treasurers use immediate payment schemes in their personal financial transactions, the demand for commercial availability will also rise, and financial institutions and businesses need to be prepared to accommodate that expectation.”

Aside from realtime payments, 20% of those surveyed listed AI and ML as the second most important trend to positively impact the payments ecosystem, while 64% said they don’t view cryptocurrencies as a legitimate form of digital payments.

The survey, titled 2018 Commercial Payments Survey, was conducted at the NACHA Payments conference in San Diego earlier this summer. A total of 390 finance professionals were surveyed for the report.

Read the full report here.