RTP and FedNow
Instant payments arean operating model.
Connecting to The Clearing House's RTP network and the Federal Reserve's FedNow Service takes a few months of integration. Most of the program is running the service at all hours, with fraud, liquidity, limits, disclosures and exceptions that never close.
The rails
RTP and FedNow are separate networks.
Both settle with finality in seconds, around the clock. They don't interoperate or fail over to each other, so a bank on both runs two of almost everything.
| FedNow Service | RTP network | |
|---|---|---|
| Operator | The Federal Reserve Banks | The Clearing House, owned by large banks |
| Live since | July 2023 | November 2017 |
| Settlement | Gross and final, in Federal Reserve master accounts | Final, from a prefunded joint account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York |
| Transaction limit | $10 million | $10 million |
| Rules | Regulation J and Operating Circular 8 | RTP Operating Rules and the participation agreement |
| Volume, Q2 2026 | About 5.0 million payments, $274.7 billion | About 142 million payments, $576 billion |
| Participants | More than 1,500 | 1,322 (July 2026) |
| Getting money back | Returns, and requests for return | A request for return only, which the receiver may refuse |
Sources: the Federal Reserve's FedNow volume and value statistics and The Clearing House's RTP network.
What the research says
Most institutions receive instant payments; far fewer send them.
of U.S. institutions expected to be receive-enabled by 2028, but only 30-40% send-enabled.
U.S. Faster Payments Council, 2024 Adoption Outlookthe average transition respondents expect from receiving instant payments to sending them.
U.S. Faster Payments Council, 2025 Instant Payments Adoption StudyEarned wage access and loan payouts show the strongest momentum; request for payment shows the weakest.
U.S. Faster Payments Council, 2025 Instant Payments Adoption Studyof U.S. banks on instant payments use both RTP and FedNow.
PYMNTS, 2025of institutions find money-mule activity only after the losses. Faster payments are the fastest-growing fraud vector.
Federal Reserve, 2026 Risk Officer Surveyof organizations reported fraud on faster payments in 2025, against 58% on checks. Business use of the instant rails is still low, so controls need to be ready before the volume arrives.
AFP, 2026 Payments Fraud and Control SurveyCommon strategies
Most institutions start with receive and add request for payment last.
- 01Receive is enterprise-wideOnce a routing number is enrolled, every account behind it can be paid, consumer accounts included. A commercial-only receive pilot isn't possible.
- 02Both rails, or plan for bothBuilding one rail and then the other means building the operating model twice. The choice of rail depends on which rails payees' banks can receive on.
- 03Lead with disbursementsPayroll, earned wage access, insurance claims, loan payouts and closing funds, before mass consumer bill pay.
- 04Commercial send before consumer sendIn waves, each with exit criteria: internal, receive for all, a handful of design-partner clients, commercial, small business, then consumer, where scam exposure is highest.
- 05Limits as a hierarchyNetwork, institution, segment, customer, account, user and transaction limits, different by rail, with a temporary uplift available at any hour.
- 06Request for payment, narrowlyHigh-value, non-recurring commercial uses first, such as cash to close, payroll funding and insurance premiums.
Beyond the build
Most of the program sits outside the integration build.
Payment processing is one part of the program. The rest is people, controls, policy and documents, all of which have to work at three in the morning on a holiday.
24x7 operations
Operating Circular 8 requires round-the-clock capability every calendar day. Plan weekend and holiday staffing, overnight on-call, named fraud contacts, and a full weekend rehearsal well before go-live.
Accepted, but not yet posted
A payment accepted while the core can't post has a deadline of its own, tied to the bank's holiday calendar, with Monday volumes several times a normal day.
Fraud and AML in real time
Sanctions screening in seconds, inbound mule scoring, fraud reporting to the rail separate from SARs, information sharing, and recordkeeping that meets the funds transfer rules.
Liquidity and settlement
RTP's prefunded account is topped up through Fedwire, which closes; FedNow's liquidity transfers run only overnight, weekends and holidays. The two rails' business days also end at different hours.
Limits and scam policy
Limits by segment and customer, first-payee caps, and a written stance on reimbursing scams, with the evidence captured in the send flow.
Agreements and disclosures
Account agreements, commercial terms, Regulation E disclosures and irrevocability language, plus RTP's customer display rule from February 2027. Legal review is on the critical path, so start it early.
Product and pricing
Propositions by segment, receiving free almost everywhere, and how much of the saving against wires to pass on.
Testing and certification
The Fed's customer testing and The Clearing House's bank test environment, or a certified provider's path through them, confirmed in writing.
Exceptions and reconciliation
Separate queues and clocks, returns on FedNow, requests for return on RTP, and matching that runs continuously rather than once a day.
How Ignite supports you
We build the integration and the operating model around it.
We've researched the rails, their rules and the industry's strategies in depth, and we deliver the integration with your core, channels and payment hub.
Strategy and roadmap
Rails, waves, use cases, limits and pricing, sequenced to keep the risk small.
The integration
Core posting and balance, the payment hub, channels and connectivity, built and tested.
The operating model
24x7 operations, exceptions, fraud, liquidity and reconciliation, designed and rehearsed before launch.
The readiness evidence
Testing, certification, policies and disclosures, organized for your risk, legal and audit teams.
The technology
The receiving bank has seconds to accept or reject a payment.
It has to answer at any hour, so on many cores the hardest decision in the program is who holds the balance while the core runs its batch.
Connecting and messaging
- A FedLine Advantage or FedLine Direct connection for FedNow; secure network and messaging connections for RTP, direct or through a provider
- ISO 20022 messages: the payment, its status, returns, requests for return, liquidity transfers and reports
- Response windows of seconds on both rails
- Directories that say which banks can receive which services
Inside the bank
- Core posting and available balance: memo-post, a stand-in ledger or direct posting
- A payment hub that normalizes the rails while the bank owns the routing policy
- Orchestration that enforces limits, duplicate checks and the audit trail for every channel
- Events and notifications to digital banking, treasury platforms and operations
The rails, the research and the providers
Where to read more.
We work alongside whichever provider an institution connects through.
Spend 30 minutes with us
Talk with us about your instant payments plan.
No pitch, no obligation. And if we're not the right team for it, we'll tell you that too.