FI Navigator and William Mills Agency Release Study on Real-Time Payment Adoption Among Banks and Credit Unions

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FI Navigator and William Mills Agency (WMA) today announced the results of a study on real-time payment adoption. The study is based on bank and credit union data from FI Navigator (July 2024 data) tracking FedNow and real-time payments (RTP) implementations.

Highlights from the study include:

• While growth is strong for real-time payment adoption by banks and credit unions, overall adoption is a minority of FIs
• Banks led credit unions in percent of adoption by asset size except one, large credit unions (33.3 percent of CUs $10 billion and above)
• Credit unions between $100M-500M have 7.9% adoption and only 1.2% for those less than $100M.

Accessibility to real-time payments can be important for businesses and financial institutions for cash flow management, efficiency, liquidity management, working capital and security.

“FedNow’s first year has been positive, with a timely launch and strong momentum in instant payments,” said Dean Nolan, Managing Director for SRM. “While 900 financial institutions are live on FedNow, broader adoption is crucial. Financial institutions need to focus on educating stakeholders on the benefits and barriers. Fraud prevention and a solid business case are the main barriers to instant payment adoption. While these need to evolve, current risk controls and the value of both sending and receiving payments are sufficient for many financial institutions to move forward now.”

"Since the launch of the FedNow Service last year, we’ve seen robust adoption of both real-time payment rails, to the point that Jack Henry is currently supporting about 30% of the banks and credit unions on the FedNow Service and around 50% of the those on the RTP Network,” said Tede Forman, President Payments Solutions at Jack Henry. “And we’re looking at a very healthy queue to onboard both networks that continues to grow. There's still lots of growth opportunity, though, particularly with credit unions, which make up about 30% of the FIs we're supporting today on both networks. I think the success we’ve had in helping institutions with faster payments can be attributed to three things. First, our faster payments hub, JHA PayCenter™, makes onboarding quick and easy. There’s very little hassle in getting up and running in a Receive status, which has helped our FIs grow deposits. Next, we have been relentlessly focused on educating everyone on the benefits and evolving use cases for real-time payments. And finally, thanks to our long and successful relationship with The Clearing House supporting hundreds of FIs for years on that network, we really had a running start."

Where: See the adoption data by asset size for banks and credit unions; and by platform by clicking here.

About FI Navigator

FI Navigator provides a web-based banking vertical data and analytics platform to industry vendors and consultants and the financial institutions they serve. Their solutions instantly allow executives to develop strategy or to identify opportunities in profitability, franchise growth, risk management and product offering. Additionally, vertical vendors and consultants leverage FI Navigator to augment client strategy, sales and marketing. All components of FI Navigator’s offering center on enhancing financial institution performance. For more information, visit www.fi-navigator.com.

About William Mills Agency

William Mills Agency is North America’s largest public relations and marketing firm serving the financial technology industry with an emphasis on fintech providers. The agency has established its reputation through the successful execution of media relations, marketing services and crisis communications programs. The company serves clients ranging in size from small start-ups to large, publicly traded companies. For more information, please visit www.williammills.com.