Real-Time Payments Adoption Statistics: 2026 Report
Our analysts reviewed the published statistics of the RTP network, the FedNow Service, UK Faster Payments, and SEPA Instant, together with the instant payment support described in our reviews of 153 rated companies, as of Q4 2026. We charted RTP payments by year from 2019, FedNow payments by quarter since launch, and 2025 payment counts on four instant rails.
An instant payment settles in seconds, at any hour, and the money is available to the receiver immediately.
Key Findings
- The RTP network settled 447.2 million payments worth $1.45 trillion in 2025, up 31% in count and nearly six times in value, and its 2026 total through October had already passed the full 2025 count at 476.1 million.
- FedNow settled 6.38 million payments in Q3 2026, 19 times its Q3 2024 level, yet the RTP network handled 150 million payments in the same quarter, about 24 times as many.
- Euro-area SEPA Instant handled 10.1 billion payments in 2025, up 73%, and reached 35.6% of all SEPA credit transfers in Q1 2026.
- Of the 153 companies we rate, 7 describe support for at least one instant rail: 5 for FedNow, 4 for RTP, 3 for Faster Payments, and 3 for SEPA Instant.
RTP Payments Grew 28 Times From 2019 to 447 Million in 2025
The Clearing House publishes annual statistics for the RTP network, the first instant payment system in the United States. Payments rose every year, and the average value per payment climbed fastest after 2024.
| Year | Payments | Value | Average value per payment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 15.8 million | $6.0 billion | $383 |
| 2020 | 65.3 million | $24.9 billion | $381 |
| 2021 | 122.4 million | $48.9 billion | $399 |
| 2022 | 172.6 million | $76.1 billion | $441 |
| 2023 | 247.6 million | $127.3 billion | $514 |
| 2024 | 342.6 million | $246.4 billion | $719 |
| 2025 | 447.2 million | $1,454.4 billion | $3,252 |
| 2026 through October | 476.1 million | $1,896.7 billion | $3,984 |
Key Findings
- Payments grew 28 times from 15.8 million in 2019 to 447.2 million in 2025, with annual growth of 31% in 2025 and 38% in 2024.
- Value grew faster than count: 2025 value was 5.9 times 2024 value, because the average payment rose from $719 to $3,252.
- The RTP network reached 150 million payments worth $621 billion in Q3 2026 and counts 1,378 participating financial institutions, 94% of them community banks and credit unions.
FedNow Payments Reached 6.4 Million in Q3 2026, 19 Times Their Level Two Years Earlier
The Federal Reserve launched the FedNow Service in July 2023 and publishes statistics on settled customer credit transfers by quarter. Growth has come in steps, with the largest in the second quarter of 2026, when quarterly payments rose 83% from the first quarter.
| Quarter | Settled payments | Value of settled payments |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2024 | 0.34 million | $17.5 billion |
| Q4 2024 | 0.92 million | $20.2 billion |
| Q1 2025 | 1.31 million | $48.6 billion |
| Q2 2025 | 2.13 million | $245.8 billion |
| Q3 2025 | 2.51 million | $307.3 billion |
| Q4 2025 | 2.47 million | $251.8 billion |
| Q1 2026 | 2.73 million | $271.3 billion |
| Q2 2026 | 5.00 million | $274.7 billion |
| Q3 2026 | 6.38 million | $370.9 billion |
Key Findings
- FedNow settled 8.41 million payments worth $853 billion in 2025, which was 459% more payments than the 1.51 million of 2024.
- Quarterly payments rose 28% from Q2 to Q3 2026, and value rose 35% to $370.9 billion.
- In 2025, the RTP network settled 53 times as many payments as FedNow, and the gap narrowed to about 24 times by Q3 2026.
Euro-Area SEPA Instant Handled 10.1 Billion Payments in 2025, Far More Than US Rails
Europe and the United Kingdom started earlier and grew from a larger base. The European Payments Council reports 10.1 billion SEPA Instant payments in the euro area in 2025, up 73% from 2024, and the UK Faster Payment System processed 5.55 billion payments worth £4.84 trillion.
| Rail | Region | 2025 payments | 2025 value |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEPA Instant | Euro area | 10.1 billion | Not published |
| Faster Payments | United Kingdom | 5.55 billion | $6,472 billion |
| RTP network | United States | 447.2 million | $1,454 billion |
| FedNow Service | United States | 8.4 million | $853 billion |
Key Findings
- SEPA Instant carried 35.6% of all SEPA credit transfers by count in Q1 2026, and about 80% of the payment providers that offer SEPA credit transfers also offer the instant version.
- The next wave of European adoption arrives in April 2027, when payment institutions and electronic money institutions must offer instant euro transfers, and in July 2027 for non-euro EU providers.
- The two US rails together settled 455.6 million payments in 2025, 4.5% of the euro-area SEPA Instant count.
Instant Payments Are Moving From Pilot to Routine
RTP payments grew 28 times in six years, FedNow's quarterly count passed 6 million in its third year, and European instant transfers now make up more than a third of credit transfers. Providers that sell account-to-account payments are building for all of these rails. Among the companies we rate, Form3 connects institutions to Faster Payments, SEPA Instant, RTP, and FedNow, Volante supports RTP, FedNow, and SEPA Instant, Highnote and Increase offer RTP and FedNow in the United States, and Modulr offers Faster Payments and SEPA in Europe.
Looking ahead, European volume should keep climbing as the 2027 obligations take effect, while US growth depends on how many banks move from receiving instant payments to sending them. FedNow's quarterly gains have outpaced RTP's in percentage terms, but RTP's base is larger.
So if you build or buy payment infrastructure, plan for both US rails, because FedNow adds reach while RTP carries most of the volume today.
Data Collection and Methodology
We reviewed sources available in Q4 2026. RTP figures are settled payments from The Clearing House annual statistics, with 2026 covering January through October. FedNow figures are settled customer credit transfers by calendar quarter. Growth is calculated from the published counts: RTP 2025 payments divided by 2019 payments is 28.3 times, FedNow Q3 2026 divided by Q3 2024 is 19.0 times, RTP Q3 2026 divided by FedNow Q3 2026 is 23.5 times, and RTP 2025 divided by FedNow 2025 is 53.2 times.
The counts on the four rails are not measured the same way. SEPA Instant is a euro-area count of instant credit transfers, Faster Payments includes standing orders, bill payments, and other payment types on the UK system, and the two US rails count settled payments only, so the chart shows scale and not like-for-like usage. UK value is converted from £4.84 trillion at the Federal Reserve H.10 rate of 1.3371 US dollars per pound as of November 6, 2026.
Our count of rated companies comes from the company reviews published on The Fintech Index as of November 10, 2026, and counts reviews that describe the company's own support for each rail, excluding mentions of competitors.
Sources
- The Fintech Index analysis of rated companies, November 2026
- The Clearing House, RTP Network Volume and Value Statistics
- The Clearing House, Q3 2026 RTP Report
- Federal Reserve Financial Services, FedNow Service Volume and Value Statistics
- European Payments Council, status update for the June 2026 ERPB meeting
- ClearingPost, Faster Payments (FPS) United Kingdom record citing Pay.UK
- Federal Reserve, H.10 foreign exchange rates
- Table 1: Source: The Clearing House, RTP Network Volume and Value Statistics. Data: rtp_network_annual.csv
- Chart 1: Source: The Clearing House, RTP Network Volume and Value Statistics.
- Table 2: Source: Federal Reserve Financial Services, FedNow Service Volume and Value Statistics, updated October 20, 2026. Data: fednow_quarterly.csv
- Chart 2: Source: Federal Reserve Financial Services, FedNow Service Volume and Value Statistics, updated October 20, 2026.
- Table 3: Source: European Payments Council and ECB data for SEPA Instant; Pay.UK statistics as recorded by ClearingPost for Faster Payments; The Clearing House for RTP; Federal Reserve Financial Services for FedNow. Data: instant_rails_2025.csv
- Chart 3: Source: European Payments Council and ECB data for SEPA Instant; Pay.UK statistics as recorded by ClearingPost for Faster Payments; The Clearing House for RTP; Federal Reserve Financial Services for FedNow.