The US Took 44 Years to Catch Up on Real-Time Payments

The US is Finally Using Real-Time Payments. What Took So Long?

In 1973, Japan launched the Zengin System, widely recognized as the world’s first interbank real-time payment network. South Korea followed with their own real-time system in the mid-80s, named the CD/ATM network. Mexico built one in 2004, the Netherlands created theirs in 2005, the UK’s arrived in 2008, and India introduced theirs in 2016. By the time the United States’ first real-time payment network was launched in 2017 by The Clearing House, countless countries around the world were far ahead of them.

Even when Americans finally got access to faster payment options, adoption was fairly slow. The Clearing House’s RTP Network launched with a low $25,000 transaction limit and a level of integration complexity that was intimidating to some smaller banks. Six years after it was created only 350 banks and credit unions supported it, representing less than 5% of US financial institutions. It wasn’t until the US Federal Reserve created their own real-time network, FedNow, that more banks and businesses began noticing the potential of faster payments.

It’s been a long, slow journey, but widespread real-time payment support in the United States has finally arrived.

FedNow and RTP Usage by the Numbers

In order for real-time networks to flourish, two parties need to be on the same page: the banks and their customers. Customers can’t actually use these systems if the banks don’t offer them, and banks may not offer them if there’s no demand.

Customer demand, in this instance, comes much more from business owners and companies than from individuals. Your average person can send money instantly through peer-to-peer apps like Venmo, meaning they don’t need to explore any other options through their bank. Businesses, however, routinely send large payments to vendors and partners that need to travel via ACH or domestic wire. These may take several business days to settle, which is a frustrating drawback. With real-time systems, that money can arrive in 10-20 seconds.

In 2026, nine years after The Clearing House’s RTP Network arrived and three years after the Federal Reserve introduced FedNow, things are finally starting to click. As of the end of 2025, about 1,600 institutions support FedNow, and over 950 support the RTP Network. In a recent survey from KPMG, 72% of banking executives said they plan on implementing FedNow over the next year. If we extrapolate that to all banks and credit unions, quick napkin math says we could see more than 5,000 new financial institutions adopt FedNow by this time in 2027.

Meanwhile, only 20% of the same executives reported interest in modernizing their wire capabilities, and 26% want to modernize their ACH support. There’s a clear shift in priority that US financial institutions haven’t seen up to this point.

This jump in support directly mirrors a jump in interest from American companies. PYMNTS found that 53% of businesses plan to adopt the RTP Network within two years, and nearly 30% want to make the move within six months. Among finance teams that already use real-time payments, 79% say that the system improves cash flow management, 78% say they improve supplier relationships, and 76% say they help with reconciliation.

Today, just about everyone agrees that real-time payments are a worthy investment. Why did it take so long for us to figure that out?

The Final Challenge for Real-Time Payments

We can’t tell you why the United States itself took so long to develop a real-time network. For a country that beat the Soviet Union to the moon, they sure dragged their feet on this initiative compared to everyone else. What we can tell you is exactly why American businesses have been slow to adopt real-time payments.

That PYMNTS survey received the same answer to two questions: “What’s the number one barrier to broader real-time network use,” and, “What’s the number one improvement real-time networks could bring to your financial performance?” That answer is integrations.

For a while, the RTP Network and FedNow couldn’t easily integrate with the ERP, accounting, and treasury solutions that many businesses used. Because ACH and domestic wires often could, teams preferred to stick with the rails that flowed into their financial stacks. The funds themselves may have taken longer to travel, but the quick connections to various systems made up for it.

In mid-2025, this hurdle was lifted with ISO 20022, a new global, open standard for electronic financial messaging. Among other things, this standard made it much easier for FedNow and the RTP Network to integrate with common accounting and ERP systems. This new potential for connection is likely the fuel that’s rocketed real-time payment systems into the mainstream in 2026.

As more and more banks team up with real-time networks, more and more companies are discovering how useful they are. Today’s businesses can adopt FedNow, receive large payments in under a minute, and hook them up to their accounting systems and treasury accounts to skip manual transcription. Real-time networks may not fully replace ACH and wire transfers, but they can act as a useful alternative when funds need to be moved as soon as possible.

Nowadays, if you’re a business owner, you might use ACH and wire for recurring vendor transfers, real-time networks for quick payments, and corporate cards for company purchases. You may even use stablecoins for low-cost international transfers. With each of the integrations and accounts that these methods can come with, getting a clear view of it all may feel impossible. That’s why Slash keeps them all in the same place.

Slash is a business banking platform that centralizes RTP/FedNow, ACH, wire, corporate cards, and stablecoins on one live financial dashboard.¹,⁴ No matter the payment rail you use, every transaction is visible, auditable, and automatically synced with accounting solutions like QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, NetSuite, and Xero. From there, Slash users can deposit their money in a Treasury account that earns up to 3.82% annualized yield.⁶

It’s never been easier to adopt real-time payment systems and integrate them with the rest of your financial workflow. Get in touch with Slash today to find out how you can get started.