While all real-time payments can be considered a form of faster payments, not all faster payments are conducted in real time. However, because they do not also settle transactions quickly, push payments are considered a faster but not real-time payments. Other payment solutions, like Mastercard’s and Visa’s push payment solutions will message transactions within seconds or minutes. Faster payments solutions, such as Nacha’s Same Day ACH, post and settle payments faster than traditional payment rails, but faster does not mean instantaneously. While they are similar, there are some key differences. It is important to note that the term real-time payments should not be used interchangeably with the term faster payments. The Federal Reserve is projecting to launch FedNow in 2023. FedNow, the Federal Reserve’s anticipated real-time solution, will also fall under the definition of a real-time network. In the United States, the most prominent example of a real-time payments network is The Clearing House’s RTP network.

Ideally, real-time payment networks provide 24x7x365 access, which means they are always online to process transfers. A real-time payments rail is the digital infrastructure that facilitates real-time payments. Real-time payments (RTP) are payments that are initiated and settled nearly instantaneously.

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