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The Federal Reserve is looking at ways to Processing Content<\/p>\n For consumers, the change may not be very noticeable. Credit-card payments, for instance, already seem to be instantaneous. But behind the scenes there is a complex, multi-party process that adds costs to every transaction. Cutting down on that complexity can take time and cost out of traditional processing steps, which can take up to three days. There are several options available to speed processing. While many banks support FedNow, banks lead the RTP network and thus have more control.\u00a0<\/p>\n While payment firms compete with each other, they but also work with each other to ensure new technology can reach a wide audience. Banks, card companies and payments fintechs and others have to balance both their need for a competitive advantage against the need to have and provide as many options to their customers as possible. Thus the competition to build a real-time international payments network that has competitors both competing and co-operating.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The Clearing House, which is owned by a consortium of U.S. banks and operates the core domestic payments infrastructure, operates the RTP (Real Time Payments) network. The service is domestically focused but looking at overseas activity.<\/p>\n “The RTP network has been advancing toward permitting international activity on the network, including one leg out and international on behalf of payments,” Jim Colassano, senior vice president of RTP Business Product Management, told American Banker. One leg out (OLO) payments refer to international transactions that include one party in the European Union. On behalf of (OBO) payments refer to a third party that processes a transaction on the sender’s behalf (such as a correspondent bank or payment company).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n At The Clearing House, the move toward supporting international RTP payments, which will begin later this year, builds on existing support for domestic “on behalf of” (OBO) payments and indirect domestic send (IDS) payments, Colassano said. IDS refers to wire transfers and other digital payments.\u00a0<\/p>\n The OBO framework supports payment flows that involve intermediaries such as non-bank payment providers, and the IDS framework supports domestic correspondent bank activity, according to Colassano. “Both of these are critical components to a cross border solution. On-behalf-ofactivity exists on the network today, with domestic-correspondent-bank activity to come in September 2026,” he said.<\/p>\n RTP, which launched in 2017, six years ahead of FedNow, hopes to build on a base of real-time payments that covers more than 1,100 banks and processed $1.3 trillion in 2025. That was up 428% from 2024, partly driven by a boost in transaction limit from $1 million to $10 million in February.\u00a0<\/p>\n By comparison, FedNow, which launched in 2023, has about 1,700 member banks and grew particularly fast in 2025, processing more than $850 billion, up more than 2,100%, also partly driven by an increase in transaction limits.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are also other options beyond FedNow and RTP to support cross-border real-time payments. Real-time transfer services such as Digital-asset firms such as Ripple have used distributed ledgers \u2013 which normally support cryptocurrencies \u2013 to “That’s why stablecoins have gained traction in corridors where correspondent banking is broken or prohibitively expensive,” Stuart Cook, a fintech industry investor and advisor, told American Banker, noting an African business buying $10 million in Chinese machinery can convert to the stablecoin USDC, transfer it on-chain, and the supplier can off ramp to local currency, bypassing a correspondent chain that might take three to seven business days to clear.<\/p>\n “I think what we might actually see is instant fiat rails like FedNow or RTP handle the on ramp and off ramp, so funding a stablecoin wallet or converting stablecoins back to bank deposits, while stablecoins handle the cross border transfer itself,” Cook said. “Your bank account holds deposits, and when you need to move money internationally, FedNow funds a stablecoin wallet in seconds, the stablecoins move on-chain to the recipient’s jurisdiction, and the recipient off ramps through their local instant payment system.”<\/p>\n A “So does FedNow cross-border eliminate the case for stablecoins or CBDCs? Not for me. The FedNow proposal still routes through correspondent banks. It makes one leg faster; it doesn’t collapse the chain,” Cook said. “Stablecoins bypass the chain entirely.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n