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FedNow Is Live

federalreserve.gov

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Re: FedNow Is Live

#171

Post by [deleted] »

incahoots wrote: post #129
no_wizard wrote: post #96

Is there going to be a universal SDK / API we can use with this? This would cut alot of middle companies out of the payments industry (or at least put pressure on lowering fees). That would be a huge win. Wish we could do the same for the credit card companies. Would be great if the Federal Government could intervene in some way to have Visa / Mastercard / American Express / Discover use the same API interface for pa…

I think you know the answer to your question, more than likely this won’t see the light of day outside of federal usage. Far too much lobbying for any REAL competition to shake up the industry. This will be exclusive to the federal government and state governments I imagine.

[deleted]

Re: FedNow Is Live

#172

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

no_wizard wrote: post #96

Is there going to be a universal SDK / API we can use with this? This would cut alot of middle companies out of the payments industry (or at least put pressure on lowering fees). That would be a huge win. Wish we could do the same for the credit card companies. Would be great if the Federal Government could intervene in some way to have Visa / Mastercard / American Express / Discover use the same API interface for pa…

> cut alot of middle companies out of the payments industry

Those middle companies have lobbyist representation and the govt has no intention of cutting any companies out of the payments industry.

Re: FedNow Is Live

#173

Post by jabroni_salad »

thomas_ma wrote: post #156

How can a consumer actually try this to send money? This says Wells Fargo is live now but after logging into Wells Fargo I don't see any obvious new feature.

Think of it more as an alternative method to fulfill the kinds of things that ACH and Wire Transfers are used for. You'll probably never see 'this is a fednow function' on any consumer facing documentation, but billpay, payroll etc will use it.

Re: FedNow Is Live

#174

Post by rafram »

DANmode wrote: post #136
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> CBDCs are next Nobody has seriously discussed a CBDC for months in the U.S. FedNow is the American financial system catching up to the 1990s. It has nothing to do with crypto beyond the cursory.

FedNow is the system that will give the USD some or all of the troublesome properties of a CBDC. I can't begin to parse your comment.

Right now, you hold your money digitally with a bank. The bank holds its money digitally with the Fed. If your bank caught fire, the bank and its insurers would be responsible for getting you your money back.

A CBDC would mean cutting out the bank - you would hold your money digitally with the Fed, and the Fed would be liable for it.

FedNow creates a ledger that allows two banks holding their money digitally with the Fed make an instant transfer. You never become a direct customer of the Fed, but your bank and the bank of the person you're exchanging money with - both already Fed customers - have a quicker way to record the transfer.

The only relation between FedNow and a CBDC is that the Fed is involved, and, like, computers, I guess? Other than that, their mechanisms and effects have very little in common.

Re: FedNow Is Live

#176

Post by CameronNemo »

karaterobot wrote: post #168
CameronNemo wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like a very opinionated take. The CBDC is still planned. But way far in the future (couple years, at least). And why wouldn't it solve settlement itself? FedNow is shipping today. If it is not the future solution, that is fine. It gives us better performance now.

I actually don't have a strong opinion about the digital dollar. I learned about it as a concrete idea in this very article. My opinion is: sounds reasonable, probably pretty complicated to pull off. I am opinionated when it comes to bad, weasely non-answers to questions though, if that's what you mean.

If they create a digital dollar and it uses any version of FedNow, then they're liars. If they create a digital dollar and it uses an entirely different product, they're incompetent.

The characterization of the Federal Reserve as incompetent is the strong opinion I observed. I personally don't agree with the logic you communicated. I think a completely separate CBDC project that is separate from FedNow is perfectly appropriate.

IMO, many policy makers view FedNow as a better ACH.

Whereas, CBDC is a much more controversial project for some policymakers.

Separating the two projects offers some risk mitigation and ensures we will at least have something usable (1) in the short to medium term and (2) even if CBDC is mired in political non-consensus.

Re: FedNow Is Live

#177

Post by numbsafari »

panarky wrote: post #100

The press release lists a few big banks like Chase, Wells Fargo, BNY Mellon, US Bank and Fiserv, along with a dog's breakfast of random service providers and credit unions. Since free realtime payments presumably would still require both the sender and the receiver to use a participating financial institution, instead of all participants just transacting directly through the Fed, how is this supposed to work if most…

It takes time for adoption. These were the early adopters, who wanted to participate in the design and also be prepared from a business standpoint to ready at launch. If it proves it’s worth, broader adoption will follow. Like anything else.

Re: FedNow Is Live

#178

Post by mixmastamyk »

lisper wrote: post #15
mydriasis wrote: post #2

> Banks and credit unions of all sizes can sign up and use this tool to instantly transfer money for their customers, any time of the day, on any day of the year. Whoa. Is this as awesome as it sounds? Is this akin to government-backed Venmo, or something?

> Is this akin to government-backed Venmo, or something? Yes, exactly. But you have to keep in mind that this is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it's going to be convenient and probably secure. On the other hand, it's going to let the government see every transaction you make, which for some people will be a very high price to pay.

Govt can already see any bank transaction made as it chooses already.

Question is, why does this fact get brought up everytime as if it’s novel?

Re: FedNow Is Live

#179

Post by 2143 »

Funny thing about topics like this is that people of any given country is oblivious to how other countries have solved that problem, or the challenges other countries face, or inturn the problems that they themselves face.

Regarding payment systems specifically, people generally don't realize what they're missing.

Pick anybody from anywhere and they'll tell you they've been able to do everything they ever wanted to do (with regards to payments) using the already-existing systems of their country.

Re: FedNow Is Live

#180

Post by latchkey »

bl4kers wrote: post #81
delfinom wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zelle is closed to the few banks that partner with the private banks that run it. Venmo is a private company that siphons your data for sale. FedNow is a long-term replacement of ACH, which the Fed Reserve banks already run. This system is open to all US financial entities. The platform also uses a ISO standard https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/prepar...

Zelle has been a nightmare to use. Apparently they rolled out a major update that caused many financial institutions to drop support. Because of that, my phone number is now unusable/blocklisted in their system because it's in a limbo state that neither Zelle nor my bank can fix

Zelle is being dropped by banks because it is a massive source of fraud.

https://www.wfla.com/8-on-your-side/better-call-behnken/zell...

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