Over the last several months, the Federal Reserve has made significant strides toward its program milestones for the FedNow Service. As a result, it has amended the industrywide launch timing for this instant payments platform to 2023, narrowing the delivery timeframe by a full year. The 2019 announcement (Off-site) indicated industrywide availability in 2023 or 2024.
“We are working hard to respond to the industry’s call for urgency and growing demand for the service,” said Kenneth C. Montgomery, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston first vice president and chief operating officer and FedNow program executive. “As part of our commitment to transparency, we will continue to provide updates and further narrow our launch window as we achieve additional program milestones.”
The Federal Reserve is taking a phased approach to expedite bringing the FedNow Service to market. Its initial launch will include core clearing and settlement functionality and key value-added features, such as a request-for-payment capability and tools to support participants in their handling of payment inquiries, reconcilements and certain exceptions. The Federal Reserve intends to augment and enhance features in subsequent releases to continue to meet industry needs. General availability of the FedNow Service will occur after extensive testing by more than 110 participants in the FedNow Pilot Program to ensure the service is ready for market. Check out this FedNow blog post for more information.
If you would like to receive the latest FedNow news, please sign up to receive FedNow emails.
