FedNow processed nearly 5 million instant payments in the second quarter of 2026, an 83% increase from Q1. And its potential reach is expanding.

The Federal Reserve recently issued a proposal that would broaden FedNow’s role in cross-border payments. By allowing participating institutions to use intermediaries outside the Federal Reserve Banks, the proposal would enable a correspondent bank or another provider to handle the international portion of a transaction while FedNow settles the U.S. leg in real time.

For businesses and consumers, that could mean faster access to funds across more international payment flows.

But for banks and fintechs, it raises the stakes of an entrenched infrastructure problem: Payment speeds are advancing faster than the fragmented data systems banks rely on to evaluate risk and defend approval decisions.

Banks have only seconds to screen for fraud and sanctions exposure before deciding whether to accept a payment through FedNow or another instant payment rail. Cross-border payments make that decision more complex by introducing additional parties, intermediaries, jurisdictions and regulatory requirements without giving banks more time to evaluate them.

Most financial infrastructure isn’t built for that compressed decision window. To evaluate a cross-border payment in real time, automated controls must instantly combine incoming payment information with customer records, transaction histories and compliance data held across internal systems.

Banks’ disconnected legacy systems often prevent automated controls from accessing the full context in time. Fintechs may have more modern infrastructure, but their ability to evaluate payments still depends on data exchanges with banking partners, payment processors and third-party compliance providers that they do not fully control.

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