Why Most U.S. Banks Still Can't Send an Instant Payment
The Federal Reserve launched FedNow in July 2023. Three years later, fewer than 1 in 5 eligible financial institutions can send a payment on it. Here's the real reason why.
The United States now has two instant payment networks. The Federal Reserve's FedNow Service launched in July 2023 [1]. The Clearing House's RTP® network has been running since 2017 [2]. Together, they form a modern real-time payment infrastructure that covers the entire country, operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and settles in seconds.
Yet as of early 2026, fewer than 1,700 of the nation's 10,000+ eligible financial institutions are connected to FedNow [3] — and participation in RTP is similarly limited at around 1,100 institutions [4]. The overlap between them is significant, meaning most banks and credit unions aren't fully connected to either network, let alone both.
This is not a story about banks lacking interest. When...
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