Real growth in real-time payments

Real-time payments adoption is accelerating. Not just in numbers, but in value. During the second quarter of 2025, the RTP network, the nation's only private sector real-time payment network, averaged 1.18 million payments a day, processing a total of $481 billion. That's a 195 percent jump in value over the previous quarter.

And FedNow, the instant payment network operated by the Federal Reserve, is setting records, too.

Big increase in transaction limits boost RTP

Earlier this year, RTP, which is operated by The Clearing House, achieved the major milestone of surpassing 1 billion payments and the single largest day in terms of the total value of payments sent. The impetus for that record setting was an increase in the transaction limit to $10 million, which took effect in February 2025, the network explained in a statement.

"The upgrade has transformed how money moves. From real estate deals to portfolio transfers and complex business-to-business payments, the RTP network is now handling major transactions with instant speed and guaranteed settlement," TCH wrote in a statement. And that resulted in the average payment skyrocketing in size from just $842 in January, to more than $4,000 by June – a 376 percent increase.

More than 300,000 businesses are now tapping into the RTP network each month through their financial institutions to power supply chains, pay vendors and streamline merchant payments, TCH said.

"Businesses are shifting to move money faster, in larger amounts, and with greater control," said Jim Colassano, senior vice president of RTP Business Product Management at TCH. "The surge in high-value transactions shows the RTP network – the leading U.S. instant payments system with a strong growth record – is not just meeting demand but enabling new opportunities across the payments ecosystem."

It's not just the value of payments that's on the rise; transaction volume increased, too, by 8 percent in the second quarter of 2025. That equates to 98 percent of instant bank-to-bank payments in the United States, according to TCH. Key drivers included account-to-account transfers, digital wallet defunding, gig economy payouts, and merchant settlements, TCH reported.

TCH said it also continue to grow its reach, with over 1,000 banks and credit unions now live on the platform – a 51 percent increase year-over-year.

FedNow charting growth, too

TCH's RTP is not the only real-time payment network, though it certainly has been operating the longest, having been launched in 2017. The Federal Reserve's instant payment network, FedNow, has been officially in operation for about a year.

And like RTP, FedNow is recording impressive growth numbers. According to statistics provided by the Fed, FedNow handled more than 2.1 million payments in the second quarter of this year, following its first venture over the one million mark in the first quarter, when it processed just over 1.3 million transactions in a single quarter.

The average payment sent via FedNow in the second quarter was $115,331, the Fed reported, compared to $3,154 in the second quarter of 2024.

FedNow only just recently increased its transaction limit to $1 million from $500,000. And FedNow has been amping up on FI participation. "FedNow volume and value have seen robust growth in the two years since the service launched, with more than 1,400 financial institutions joining the service," the Fed noted on the FedNow website.

In a Q&A provided by the Fed, Chief FedNow Executive Nick Stanescu, pointed to an "explosion of instant payment innovation emerging among financial institutions, payment processors and fintechs."

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