• RTP and FedNow at a glance
  • Worked example: paying a supplier on a Friday night

In the US, a real-time payment is a bank transfer that reaches the other business's account within seconds, at any hour of any day, and can't be pulled back by the sender. Two networks carry these payments between banks:

  • the RTP network, run by The Clearing House since 2017;
  • the FedNow Service, run by the Federal Reserve Banks since July 2023.

Both networks allow payments of up to $10 million. Your own bank can set a lower limit.

For a business paying suppliers, that means three things:

  • an invoice can be paid on a Friday night and the supplier can use the money immediately;
  • a payment sent to the wrong account, or to a fraudster, can't be cancelled by your bank;
  • the payment can carry the invoice details your supplier needs to match it.

This page covers the US networks only. Other countries run their own instant payment systems under different rules.

RTP and FedNow at a glance

  • Operator. RTP: The Clearing House. FedNow: the Federal Reserve Banks.
  • Hours. RTP: 24/7/365 (TCH). FedNow: a 24-hour business day every day, including weekends and Federal Reserve holidays (FedNow operating hours).
  • Network limit per payment. RTP: up to $10 million (TCH). FedNow: $10 million since November 2025, and banks "have flexibility to set lower transaction limits" (Federal Reserve Financial Services).
  • Funds to the payee. RTP: receiving banks must make funds available immediately, with limited exceptions (TCH). FedNow: the receiving bank must make funds available to the payee immediately once it accepts the payment (Operating Circular 8, 9.2.4).
  • Can the sender take it back? RTP: no. "Settlement is final and irrevocable," but a request for return message exists (TCH). FedNow: no. Settlement is final (OC 8, 7.1). Return requests can be sent, and the receiving bank decides whether to honor them (FedNow operating procedures, 15.2).
  • Direction. RTP: credit push only, so the payer sends and nobody can pull money from your account (TCH). FedNow: credit transfers, sent by the payer's bank (OC 8).
  • Request for payment. RTP: supported, so a biller can send a request for payment of a bill or invoice (TCH). FedNow: supported as an optional feature (Federal Reserve).

Business use is real on both networks. The Clearing House reports 150 million RTP transactions totaling $621 billion in the third quarter of 2026 (TCH). FedNow settled 6.38 million payments worth $370.9 billion in the same quarter, an average of $58,161 per payment (FedNow volume and value statistics, updated October 20, 2026).

For more figures on how businesses pay and get paid, see invoicing statistics.

The networks are separate. Your bank and your supplier's bank both have to be on the same network for a payment to go through. For a closer comparison with ACH, see FedNow vs. RTP vs. ACH.

Worked example: paying a supplier on a Friday night

Sample businesses and sample figures for illustration only.

Harbor Foods, a food distributor, owes Coastline Packaging invoice INV-20417 for $86,400. Coastline's terms give a 1% discount if payment arrives by Friday. That's worth 1% × $86,400 = $864, so Harbor would pay $85,536. (See invoice payment terms explained for how early-payment discounts work.)

The invoice clears Harbor's approval process at 6:40 p.m. ET on Friday.

Option A: an ACH credit. ACH credits settle the same day, the next banking day or two banking days later (Nacha). Once Harbor's bank has passed its last ACH cutoff on Friday, the earliest the payment can settle is Monday, the next banking day. Coastline wouldn't have the money by Friday, so Harbor would miss the $864 discount unless Coastline agreed to honor it anyway.

Option B: a real-time payment. Before sending, Harbor's accounts payable team checks three things:

  1. Both banks are on the same network. Harbor's bank offers RTP payments, and Coastline's bank appears on The Clearing House's list of participating institutions.
  2. The amount fits both limits. $85,536 is far below the $10 million network limit. It's also below the $250,000 limit Harbor's bank set for its business customers (a sample figure; ask your bank for yours).
  3. The bank details are genuine. On Wednesday, an email "from Coastline" asked Harbor to send future payments to a new account. Harbor's clerk called Coastline on the phone number already in the vendor file. Coastline said it had sent no such email. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center recommends this kind of check: "Use secondary channels and/or two-factor authentication to verify requests for changes in account information" (IC3 public service announcement, September 2024).

Harbor sends $85,536 at 6:42 p.m. Coastline's bank credits Coastline's account within seconds and must make the money available immediately. Settlement is final, so Coastline can use the funds that night.

The payment carries remittance details: "INV-20417, $86,400 less 1% early-payment discount $864, paid $85,536." Coastline's accounts receivable team matches it to the open invoice without calling anyone.

What the example shows:

  1. Speed has a dollar value in B2B when a deadline is attached. Here, it was the $864 discount. With no deadline, a scheduled ACH payment arriving Monday would have done the same job.
  2. The bank-detail check matters more on an instant payment. If Harbor had paid the fraudulent account, its bank couldn't recall the money. The best it could do was send a request for return, which the receiving bank isn't obliged to honor. The IC3 advises reporting a fraudulent transfer at ic3.gov as soon as possible, because it may be able to help freeze funds (IC3).
  3. Remittance data saves the supplier work. A payment that says which invoice it pays, and why the amount differs from the invoice, can be posted the same night.

Where real-time payments fit in B2B

The Clearing House lists "treasury, supplier, and cash concentration payments" among RTP use cases, alongside merchant settlement, insurance and gig-economy payouts (TCH). When it raised the FedNow limit, the Federal Reserve pointed to three higher-value uses (press release, September 2025):

  • corporate treasury transfers between a company's own accounts;
  • payroll funding;
  • commercial real estate payments, such as escrow funding.

For a small or midsize business, the practical cases are:

  • Supplier payments with a deadline, such as early-payment discounts, a supplier holding a shipment until payment, or a payment due on a weekend.
  • Moving your own money between banks, for example topping up the account that payroll or card settlements draw from.
  • Paying contractors as soon as a job is signed off.
  • Being paid sooner yourself. If your bank can receive real-time payments, a customer can pay your invoice in seconds instead of mailing a check. For other ways customers can pay, see how to accept online payments. With request for payment, you can send a request your customer approves in their own banking channel. Their bank has to support it. Request for payment travels over the payment network itself. Open banking, by contrast, is the data and consent layer: it lets apps access your bank data, and in some cases start a payment, with your permission. See what open banking is.

If you invoice with Billed, you can record a bank-transfer payment against the invoice as an offline payment, so your receivables stay accurate (Billed payments).

Risks and controls for accounts payable

  • No recall. Both networks treat settlement as final. Put your strongest checks before the payment, not after: an approval by a second person for new payees and large amounts, and a callback on a known number for any change to bank details. For more on payment fraud trends, see payment fraud statistics.
  • Your bank's limits. The $10 million figure is a network maximum. On FedNow, a sending bank's limit starts at a default value below the network limit, and the bank can configure it (FedNow operating procedures). Ask your bank what applies to your account and to its online banking channel.
  • Receive-only banks. FedNow has a "receive only" participation type for credit transfers (FedNow operating procedures). A supplier's bank being on FedNow doesn't mean the supplier can pay you that way.
  • Reconciliation. Real-time payments arrive at any hour, including weekends. Make sure your accounts payable records and your bank reconciliation can handle payments dated on a Saturday. Ask suppliers which reference they need in the remittance field.
  • Cash timing. Money leaves your account the moment you send. If you used to rely on an ACH payment taking a day to settle, plan your cash flow around same-second debits.

When ACH or a wire is still the better choice

  • Recurring collections. RTP is "strictly 'credit push'" (TCH), so you can't debit a customer's account on a schedule the way ACH debits allow (Nacha). See how ACH payments work.
  • Routine payments with no deadline. If a payment is due next week, ACH does the job and keeps the money in your account until settlement.
  • Same-day amounts above your bank's real-time limit. Same Day ACH is capped at $1 million per payment today. Nacha's members approved raising it to $10 million, effective September 17, 2027 (Nacha, April 2026). Above your bank's real-time limit, a wire transfer is the alternative.
  • Payments abroad. RTP and FedNow move dollars between US institutions.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are real-time payments in B2B?

They're bank-to-bank transfers between businesses that settle within seconds, at any time, with immediate access to the funds for the payee. In the US, they run over The Clearing House's RTP network or the Federal Reserve's FedNow Service, and the sender can't recall them once sent.

What is the limit for RTP and FedNow payments?

Both networks allow up to $10 million per payment. FedNow's network limit rose from $1 million to $10 million in November 2025. Your bank can set a lower limit for your account, so ask what applies to you.

Can I cancel a real-time payment sent to the wrong account?

Not on your own. Settlement on both networks is final. Your bank can send a request for return to the receiving bank, which decides whether to send the money back. If the payment was fraud, tell your bank immediately and report it to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.

Is RTP the same as ACH?

No. RTP payments clear and settle one at a time in real time with immediate finality. Same Day ACH payments are cleared in batches and settle after they clear. ACH also allows debits, where a business collects from a customer's account. RTP is credit push only.

Are RTP and FedNow available on weekends and holidays?

Yes. RTP operates 24/7/365. FedNow runs a 24-hour business day every day of the week, including weekends and Federal Reserve holidays. Some support activities at the Federal Reserve Banks are available only on standard business days.

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