In less than two and a half years since its launch, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s FedNow real-time payments system has seen an increase in participant financial institutions to 1,600.

The service added 500 new institutions over the past year, with more than 100 joining in Q4 of last year. Currently, nearly all major U.S. financial services companies are now part of FedNow.

This expansion has resulted in significant improvements across various metrics for the system. According to reports from the Federal Reserve, average daily transactions on FedNow reached nearly 30,000 last year, with a yearly increase in transaction volume of 460%.

The total dollar value of FedNow transactions last year amounted to $853.4 billion, indicating an average payment size of $101,435—an improvement from the previous year’s figures of $38.2 billion and an average of $25,376.

The Unavoidable Comparison

While FedNow has been successful, discussions frequently compare it with The Clearing House’s RTP network, as both are key players in the closely watched U.S. real-time payments sector.

The RTP network was established by a consortium of major U.S. banks in 2017 and currently includes around 1,135 financial institutions on its network. However, FedNow surpasses it in terms of transaction volume, having processed over $1.3 trillion in 2025.

This disparity may partly be due to RTP raising its transaction cap from $1 million to $10 million last February, while FedNow did not increase its limits until September.

A Reflection on Real-Time Payments

Despite the comparisons, both networks share a significant overlap, with PNC Bank being one example. Although it was a latecomer to join FedNow, PNC’s participation should be seen as an endorsement of real-time payment systems’ growing influence.

The increasing participation of hundreds of banks and credit unions in both networks underscores the potential impact of real-time payments on reshaping the U.S. payments landscape.