On January 25, 2021, the Federal Reserve announced that more than 110 organizations from the FedNow Community will participate in the FedNow Pilot Program. The program will support development, testing and adoption of the FedNow Service, as well as encourage development of services and use cases that leverage FedNow functionality.

“We’re gratified by the industry’s tremendous interest and willingness to devote time and energy to help us develop the FedNow Service,” said Esther George, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and executive sponsor of the Federal Reserve’s payments improvement initiatives. “As a result, we’ve adjusted to accommodate more participants than we originally planned.”

Through their involvement in the FedNow Pilot Program, participating financial institutions and processors will help shape the product's features and functions, provide input into the overall user experience, ensure readiness for testing and be the first to experience the FedNow Service before its general availability. In the initial advisory phase, participant input will help to further define the service and adoption roadmap, industry readiness approaches and overall instant payments strategy.

In addition to expressions of interest from eligible financial institutions and processors, the Federal Reserve received more than 80 submissions from organizations that provide payment systems and services for financial institutions and end users or that are interested in implementing instant payments to meet business or consumer needs.

In response to this broad interest, the Federal Reserve is creating an “ecosystem participant” program beginning later in 2021. Among other activities, ecosystem participants will provide feedback on specific features and use cases and help support end-to-end testing of solutions leveraging the FedNow Service, in coordination with corresponding financial institution partners. Their participation is expected to help drive adoption, innovation, and breadth and depth of end-user solutions over time. Additional details will be announced soon.

Organizations that won’t be participating in the program will continue to have opportunities to provide input into the FedNow Service through their involvement in FedNow Community roundtables, working groups and surveys and may elect to become an early user of the service upon general availability. Join the Community (Off-site) to receive more information on the FedNow Service and upcoming engagement opportunities.

If you have any questions related to the pilot program or the Community, please email SYSFedNowCommunity @chi.frb.org.

Organizations announcing participation in the FedNow Pilot Program*

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