Domestic real-time payments are spreading as more countries adopt the technology, but the move to international, cross-currency payments is still some time off.

For years, much of the hype in payments has been around mobile payments and blockchain technology. But the innovation that has done the most to change British shopping habits has been contactless cards, which launched in 2007 but have really come of age in recent years.

Since the announcement of Worldpay’s merger with Vantiv there has been a glut of bids for payments companies, coming from in-market competitors, credit card companies looking to enter the sector and private equity firms.