FPC Report Compares FedNow, RTP, and Stablecoins in U.S. Faster Payments Landscape

The U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC) has released a comprehensive report titled "A Comprehensive Look at the U.S. Faster Payments Landscape for Optimal Operation." For fintech professionals, this provides a critical comparative framework for navigating the fragmented U.S. real-time ecosystem, bridging the gap between traditional rails like FedNow and RTP and emerging digital assets like stablecoins.

What was announced

The FPC Digital Assets Work Group published this report to analyze the diverse range of payment rails currently active in the United States. It specifically compares the FedNow® Service, RTP® Network, Visa® Direct, Mastercard Send™, Same Day ACH, stablecoins, and tokenized deposits. The analysis evaluates these systems across several technical and operational benchmarks, including settlement finality, transaction speed, value limits, fraud management protocols, governance structures, and liquidity requirements.

The report categorizes functionality, noting that the FedNow Service and RTP Network focus on domestic instant settlement, whereas Visa Direct and Mastercard Send leverage card-based infrastructure for disbursements and broader reach. Same Day ACH is identified as the primary vehicle for high-volume batch processing. Crucially, the report integrates stablecoins and tokenized deposits into the conversation, highlighting their programmable nature and new approaches to settlement.

Beyond technical specifications, the FPC addresses operational use cases including earned wage access, insurance payouts, B2B transactions, treasury and cash concentration, consumer bill pay, and government disbursements. It also tackles the complexities of payment orchestration and interoperability challenges that arise when organizations attempt to manage multiple rails simultaneously. By examining these applications alongside the characteristics of each payment option, the report provides context for organizations evaluating which approaches align with their business and customer needs.

"The U.S. faster payments landscape is becoming more diverse, and the availability of rails with different features provides users with options to meet their needs. This report gives organizations a valuable resource for understanding the characteristics of each option and considering how they can work together. By bringing these different approaches into one resource, we hope to help the industry better understand the opportunities ahead and how faster payments can deliver greater value."

Reed Luhtanen, FPC Executive Director and CEO.

The companies involved

The U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC) is a membership-led organization focused on the evolution of the American payment system. Its primary mission is to facilitate the adoption of ubiquitous faster payments that are safe and easy to use. The FPC operates as a collaborative forum where diverse stakeholders—including financial institutions, payment network operators, technology providers, and business end-users—can align on standards and best practices. It maintains a neutral stance among competing rails, serving as a central knowledge hub in a market that lacks a single, unified real-time payment mandate.

Strategic Resource Management (SRM), represented in the report by Larry Pruss, Managing Director at SRM and Vice Chair of the Digital Assets Work Group, is a consultancy that provides strategic guidance to financial institutions. The FPC's structure relies heavily on these specialized work groups to produce industry-standard documentation and research. The depth of experience across these teams is intended to provide a practical perspective on the evolving U.S. landscape, particularly as traditional banking infrastructure begins to intersect with blockchain-based settlement methods.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has extensively tracked the FPC’s efforts to standardize and explain the shifting payments landscape through 33 previous reports. Recently, the organization released a report on U.S. Faster Payments Council Unveils New Strategy for Cross-Border Interoperability, which preceded its U.S. Faster Payments Council Unveils Strategic Roadmap for Stablecoins in Cross-Border Payments. These publications highlight a consistent focus on how digital assets can solve traditional friction points.

The council has also looked at the social impact of these technologies, as seen in the U.S. Faster Payments Council Report Examines How Digital Inclusion Drives Financial Inclusion. Furthermore, the FPC’s commitment to technical rigor was demonstrated when the U.S. Faster Payments Council and ASC X9 Establish Joint Standards Steering Committee to Advance Faster Payments Standards Initiatives earlier this year.

What this means

The release of this report signals a maturing of the U.S. payments market, moving from a "wait and see" approach regarding FedNow and RTP to a complex orchestration phase. By placing stablecoins and tokenized deposits on the same analytical plane as Same Day ACH and card rails, the FPC is effectively legitimizing digital assets as a functional component of the corporate treasury toolkit. This puts pressure on traditional banks to offer more than just a single rail; they must now provide sophisticated orchestration layers to remain competitive. The industry must now address whether the sheer variety of options will lead to genuine innovation or simply create a fragmented, inefficient "paradox of choice" for end-users.