4 days ago
Financial Institutions Can Align With Businesses On Faster Payments
Reed Luhtanen is the Executive Director of the U.S. Faster Payments Council, a membership organization focused on advancing faster payments.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander, right? What is good for one, is good for all? In some instances, this might be the case, but not when it comes to faster payments and what businesses need to support faster payments adoption.
Faster payments adoption by both businesses and financial institutions has been steadily climbing over the past five years. In 2019, the Faster Payments Barometer revealed that less than half of industry organizations had adopted some form of faster payments. Fast forward to 2025, and 80% of respondents to this year's study consider faster payments a 'must have.'
Take, for instance, financial institutions. Not only have they adopted faster payments, but they are leveraging multiple channels to do so. In fact, the 2025 Faster Payments Barometer showed that nearly 90% of financial institutions have or plan to implement FedNow; nearly 64% have or plan to implement RTP; and over 55% have or plan to implement Zelle. Additionally, among the financial institutions that have implemented instant payments, 58% implemented both FedNow and RTP. And new developments are forthcoming: More than 90% of planned faster payments implementations will occur in the next two years.
Businesses, too, are interested in faster payment solutions—with 66% reporting they are likely to use instant payments if offered by their primary financial institution. However, their adoption of faster payments has not advanced at the same pace. A recent report indicated that only around 40% of large businesses are using RTP, demonstrating that the rate of adoption by businesses remains slower when compared to financial institutions.
This differential stems from a disconnect between financial institutions' priorities and businesses' needs. Consider that the 2025 Faster Payments Barometer revealed that financial institutions are most interested in offering faster payments for person-to-person (P2P) payments, bill payment and payroll, while businesses hope to leverage faster payments for e-commerce, point-of-sale transactions and supplier/invoice payments.
Similarly, there is a sharp contrast between the challenges experienced by both audiences. Financial institutions grapple with the high implementation costs, with roughly 60% citing this as the top challenge, while only 38% of nonfinancial institutions do. For nonfinancial institutions, the top challenge is a lack of ubiquity and interoperability (60%), while only 36% of financial institutions see it as a challenge.
This disconnect also contributes to businesses' dissatisfaction with the progress of faster payments: Less than 30% of businesses feel as though the United States is making satisfactory progress toward a faster payments future.
Yet, while discontent may exist, businesses still believe in the value and benefit of faster payments. Sixty-seven percent consider faster payments a must-have. From cost savings and increased cash flow to enhanced customer service and greater efficiencies, the value prop for business adoption is obvious.
And as a key facilitator of faster payments, financial institutions can serve as the conduit to deliver the faster payments experience businesses want and need. Financial institutions need to consider ways to better engage their business audience while not losing sight of institutional priorities.
For instance, bill pay is a use case important to financial institutions. And request-for-payment (RfP) is the most important enhanced offering cited by nonfinancial institutions. As the key player in connecting billers and customers through banking platforms, financial institutions can focus efforts on enabling RfP for business customers, meeting business needs while enhancing the bill pay offering. Implementing RfP also supports businesses' desire to use faster payments for supplier/invoice payments.
Even businesses' desire for interoperability is something financial institutions can work toward supporting (and already are). By adopting both RTP and FedNow, financial institutions play a role in growing the overall faster payments ecosystem. By doing so, they increase the number of end points able to access faster payments, growing the opportunity for interoperability. Additionally, by offering both platforms, financial institutions provide businesses with greater reach to the customers they are seeking to serve, aiding in meeting their desire for a more universal, faster payments experience.
When it comes to faster payments, financial institutions and businesses have different priorities and concerns. But those differences do not have to divide the two audiences. By understanding the needs of businesses, financial institutions can realign efforts to meet businesses' needs while remaining steadfast in addressing organizational goals and objectives.
So, what is good for the goose might not necessarily be what is good for the gander, but through understanding, both the goose and gander—financial institutions and businesses—can agree upon solutions to advance faster payments in the United States.
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