FIS Earns Certification to Enable Send Capabilities in FedNow Service

FinTech company FIS said Tuesday (Feb. 4) that it is now certified to enable send capabilities for credit transfers in the FedNow® Service.

By offering this capability on the Federal Reserve’s instant payment service, FIS will help its financial institution clients provide a modernized digital payment experience to consumers and commercial borrowers, the company said in a press release.

For example, this capability will allow consumers to pay loans, rent or bills without worrying about slow or delayed transfers, according to the release.

“Giving the end user direct access to send payments instantly using FedNow marks a huge milestone in our efforts to enable a harmonious payments experience for our clients and the customers they serve,” Chris Como, head of cards and money movement at FIS, said in the release.

FIS now supports “the full payments lifecycle” in FedNow, the release said.

The company completed testing and certification for FedNow’s receive-only payments in July 2023, just before the launch of the instant payments service, FIS said at the time in a press release.

With that certification, FIS can receive payments from any financial institution that sends money over the FedNow network, send payment returns, and provide acknowledgments, requests and responses, according to the July 2023 release.

While nearly all large financial institutions are connected to instant payment rails like FedNow, smaller financial institutions are struggling to keep pace, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Real-Time Readiness: Bridging Gaps in FIs’ Instant Payments Adoption.”

The report found that financial institutions that don’t offer instant payments for use cases such as bill payments and peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers risk losing out.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Overcoming Obstacles to Widespread Real-Time Payments Adoption” found that many financial institutions use third-party payment providers to alleviate the financial and operational challenges of implementing real-time payment systems.

Forty-four percent of banks plan to build their real-time payment capabilities outside their current payment systems, with smaller institutions especially likely to seek third-party partnerships that can help them overcome the technical and financial barriers of upgrading their systems.