FedNow & RTP Integration That Actually Goes Live
Real-time payments integration for FinTechs — ISO 20022 message handling, sponsor-bank certification, sub-second fraud decisioning, and the 24/7 ops architecture that real-time rails actually require.
When to call us
Real-time payments integration is most useful at specific inflection points.
Customers are demanding instant
Same-day ACH is no longer enough. Your competitors offer instant payouts and you are losing deals because of settlement timing.
Sponsor bank is pushing FedNow/RTP
Your sponsor bank is rolling out real-time rails and wants you ready. You need an integration plan that does not derail other roadmap work.
24/7/365 ops are new to your team
Real-time payments mean no batch windows, no end-of-day cutoffs, no maintenance Sundays. Your ops, fraud, and reconciliation systems need to handle this.
Real-time fraud is unsolved
Authorized push-payment fraud and money mules exploit irrevocable rails. Your existing batch fraud rules will not catch what RTP enables.
What you actually get
The technical and operational components of a real-time payments integration that holds up in production.
- ISO 20022 message handling — pacs.008, pacs.002, camt.054, camt.056 and the operational state machine they imply
- Sponsor-bank integration with FedNow Service or RTP via TCH — including liquidity and reserve management
- Real-time fraud and AML controls — sub-second decisioning, with proper fallback when scoring services degrade
- Settlement and reconciliation that handles 24/7/365 — no end-of-day cutoff, with proper handling of cross-day breaks
- Customer-side UX patterns — request for payment (RfP), payment status updates, refund/return flows
- Cross-rail strategy — when to send via FedNow vs RTP vs Same-Day ACH vs wire, automated by amount, recipient, and time-of-day
Named proof
Engagements with adjacent payment-system work that informs real-time rail integration.
Netspend
Austin, TXShipped a credit-building feature on a mobile banking platform that integrates with the broader US payments stack — designed with real-time payments in the consideration set.
HelloHive
New York, NYModernized legacy monolith with serverless and event-driven patterns — the architectural foundation that real-time payments require.
How we work
30-min discovery call
Where you are with sponsor bank conversations, what your competitors offer, and where the real-time pressure is coming from. Honest read on FedNow vs RTP vs deferring.
Integration assessment
2–3 weeks. We map ISO 20022 to your existing state machines, identify the fraud/AML gaps, and produce a written integration plan with sequencing and risk callouts.
Embedded build
We pair with your senior engineers on the highest-risk components — message handling, sponsor-bank state sync, and the cross-rail orchestration layer. Through certification and into production.
Frequently asked
FedNow vs RTP — which should we integrate first?
Depends on your sponsor bank coverage, customer geography, and amount profile. FedNow has broader bank reach now; RTP via TCH had a head start and stronger coverage among large banks. Most serious FinTechs end up on both; the question is sequencing and which to make the default.
How long does FedNow integration take?
4–8 months end-to-end is typical for a FinTech going through a sponsor bank — this includes message-handling implementation, sponsor-bank certification, fraud/AML readiness, and parallel-run testing. Going faster usually means cutting corners on fraud, which becomes a liability post-launch.
What about Canadian RTR (Real-Time Rail)?
RTR is rolling out via Payments Canada and shares ISO 20022 foundations with FedNow and SEPA Instant — meaning much of the integration architecture is portable. We have helped Canadian-domiciled FinTechs plan for it, and US FinTechs expanding north evaluate it alongside Interac.
How do we handle fraud on irrevocable rails?
Sub-second decisioning at the point of authorization, layered defense (device, behavior, beneficiary risk, velocity), strong customer authentication for higher-value or new-payee transactions, and proper handling of FedNow request-for-return (pacs.004) when fraud is detected post-fact. Most teams underestimate the engineering effort here.
Do you handle the sponsor-bank conversations?
We can sit alongside you in those conversations and translate sponsor-bank requirements into engineering work, but we do not negotiate the commercial relationship. We work with whichever sponsor bank you have or are evaluating.
Can you help us decide if real-time payments are worth it for our product?
Yes — sometimes the answer is "not yet". We will look at your customer base, competitor offerings, fraud profile, and engineering capacity, and give you a real read on whether to integrate now, defer 6 months, or stick with same-day ACH for the segments where it is genuinely fine.
Ready to talk?
30 minutes, free, no pitch. We will tell you honestly whether real-time integration makes sense for your product right now.