It’s honestly amazing how quickly a lot of developing countries have embraced this stuff. Hell, even roadside hawkers in a country like India accept instant bank transfers. It’s ridiculous that the US is so far behind.

Yes, writing this from Western Europe Americans not being able to wire each other money instantly is so confusing.

As far as an overlay service goes, Zelle basically fills that niche, and it's increasing in popularity. I think FedNow is more for larger payments.

It is hard to get away with the crimes the bankers and other big finance entities have grown accustomed to committing as a part of their day to day business with instant resolution. Read up on failing to deliver, or as entities like Citadel like to term it, “sold, not yet purchased", like they did to the tune of 60B dollars.

It is like selling someone a house that you don't own and may not even really exist. They can do this because they have a time period in which they have some leeway before they have to deliver the “deed" so to speak. It goes deeper than that but that is a simplified high level overview of the scam.

Simply put, the stock market is all fake and nothing is valued appropriately because price discovery us impossible with naked shorting and the use of OTC and dark pools.

It launched at a few banks a couple of days ago. https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/21/fednow-is-finally-live-in-the-us/

So, I guess it’s in late beta stage where a limited private beta will happen for a bit and then we’ll see how it goes.

It’d honestly be great for small businesses and workers. No more waiting multiple days for a payment to clear and money to become available.

Tech Crunch's recent article indicates it may be costly. https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/23/fednow-may-finally-be-live-but-will-it-be-too-costly-for-businesses-to-adopt/