FedNow® and RTP® competition fuels growth opportunities

As 2026 is well on its way, financial institutions are looking back at important trends and lessons from 2025 to shape their digital roadmaps.

The emerging competition between the two major instant payments networks, the FedNow® Service and The Clearing House’s RTP® network, has created a landscape ripe for growth.

“Competition between RTP and FedNow will continue to unlock new use cases and differentiators – exactly what the market needs,” said Sayantan Chakraborty, head of digital payments at Fiserv. “For the thousands of institutions that have yet to join either network, now is the time to build an instant roadmap that supports accountholder expectations and strengthens deposits.”

RTP: Leading in 2025

RTP drove strong growth in instant payments in 2025. The network processed an average of 1.36 million transactions daily in the fourth quarter.

RTP also achieved more than 400% growth in the daily average value of transactions and processed $405 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, up from $80 billion in the same quarter of 2024.

In 2025’s second quarter, RTP experienced a spike in payments processing value as participating financial institutions took advantage of the new $10 million transaction limit.

FedNow: Catching up

In 2025, FedNow also implemented a $10 million transaction limit, leveling the playing field with RTP.

FedNow reached financial institutions in 50 states in 2025 and experienced 460% year-over-year volume growth. While FedNow’s 30,000 daily transactions represent only about 2% of RTP’s 1.36 million, the network’s 2025 fourth quarter transaction value of $251.8 billion is 62% of RTP’s.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Digital Payout Program launched in 2025 and facilitated through FedNow the first Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief instant disbursement to CB&S Bank. Many financial institutions that had operated solely on RTP, including PNC and Capital One, adopted FedNow and are prepared for future government agency disbursements.

Waking up to an instant environment

Financial institutions adopted the networks quickly in 2025.

FedNow grew to nearly 1,600 participants, with larger financial institutions potentially tempted by instant government disbursements or liquidity management transfers, a convenient way to push money through FedNow to other institutions.

RTP reported it grew from 730 financial institutions to 1,135 by the end of 2025. While RTP has broader demand deposit account reach, FedNow has more participants, with many in the community financial institution category.

“As these networks begin to mature, the growth indicates that financial institutions simply cannot hide from instant payments. They are here to stay,” Chakraborty said. “Federal government payments could certainly be the tipping point for widespread industry adoption.”
 

The road ahead

Shared use cases, including request for payment (RFP), for both networks appeal broadly to consumers and small businesses.

RFP enables consumers or small businesses to request payments from third parties, relying on the sender to “push” funds through the instant payment network rather than “pulling” them in a debit model, such as ACH payments. That type of transaction powers many other instant payments use cases, such as bill payments, digital wallet funding and business-to-business payment collection.

Other use cases for instant payments across both networks include:

• Gig economy wage disbursements
• Gambling app deposits
• Person-to-person payments
• Instant loan disbursements
• Real estate transactions
• Payroll

“With this growth, financial institutions could face challenges related to the round-the-clock support required for 24/7 instant payments,” Chakraborty said. “As use cases, higher limits and growing consumer demand drive adoption, we may see financial institutions needing additional support to manage their account balances and monitor instant transactions in real time.”

Instant is here. Financial institutions can develop strong roadmaps to adopt applications and integrations to build for an instant future.

For more information, contact Fiserv at fasterpayments@fiserv.com.