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Market scan · Payments · May 2026

U.S. Money Movement at a glance

ACH still anchors the system. The growth is somewhere else — on instant rails moving in triple and quadruple digits. Here's the 2025 picture in three numbers.

Insurance pool ~$900B Largest unwon segment
RTP Network $1.3T +428% YoY
Consumers using instant 74% 79% prefer it

The 60-second read

  • ACH still anchors the system. $93.0T moved in 2025 across 35.2B transactions.
  • Instant rails are scaling fast. RTP +428%, FedNow +2,134%, Same Day ACH +21% YoY in 2025.
  • The migration is consumer-pulled. 74% of consumers have used instant payments and 79% prefer them — disbursements arriving instantly went from 11% in 2018 to 41% in early 2025.
  • Fraud is the brake on the bank side. Only 24–34% of U.S. financial institutions are expected to have fraud detection fully enabled by year-end 2026.
  • Insurance is the largest unwon pool. ~$900B annually, with an estimated $300–490B still on paper check.

Seven consumer-touching segments

Cards with an orange top stripe are the segments with the strongest momentum in the 2025 FPC survey.

Insurance & claims disbursement ~$900B est. annual value · paper-check heavy in P&C
Growth~5–8%
Avg ticketBimodal
FrequencyEvent-driven
Speed sensitivity Very high
Payroll & Earned Wage Access ~$12.5T incl. ~$30B EWA · ~4.8–5.2B transactions
GrowthLow single-digit (EWA 25%)
Avg ticket~$2.4–2.6K (EWA ~$106)
FrequencyBiweekly / monthly
Speed sensitivity Very high (EWA)
Digital lending disbursement ~$47B ~3M transactions
Growth+23% YoY
Avg ticket~$15K
FrequencyEvent-driven
Speed sensitivity High
P2P, wallets & account funding ≥$2T ≥4.2B transactions
Growth~15%
Avg ticketBimodal
FrequencyWeekly
Speed sensitivity High
Gig economy ~$300–400B  
Growth~10–12%
Avg ticketBimodal
FrequencyEvent-driven
Speed sensitivity Very high
Government disbursement ~$6.0T ~1.32B payments
GrowthSingle-digit
Avg ticket~$4.5K
FrequencyMonthly / annual
Speed sensitivity Medium
Remittances & cross-border P2P ~$93–103B ~190–340M transactions
GrowthLow single-digit
Avg ticket~$300–500
Frequency2–3× / month
Speed sensitivity Very high

Gig and insurance figures include directional estimates where published data is incomplete. Where 2025 figures are not available, the most recent year available is used as the anchor.

Six active rails

Bank rails measure DDA coverage; card rails measure debit-card endpoint coverage.

ACH (standard)
1–3 business days
~100% reach
35.2Btransactions
$93.0Tvalue
+8% 
Financial Institution set 
Same Day ACH
Same day
~100% reach
1.4Btransactions
$3.9Tvalue
+21.4% 
$1M→ $10M Sep '27
RTP Network
Instant · 24/7
~71% reach
~657Mtransactions
$1.3Tvalue
+428% 
$10M 
FedNow
Instant · 24/7
~35% reach
8.4Mtransactions
$853Bvalue
+2,134% 
$10M 
Visa Direct
Near real-time
~99% debit reach
n/dtransactions
n/dUS value
n/d 
Financial Institution setVisa-capped
Mastercard Move
Near real-time
~95% debit reach
n/dtransactions
n/dUS value
n/d 
Financial Institution setMC-capped

The migration in one picture

2018 11%

of consumer disbursements arrived instantly.

→
Early 2025 41%

of consumer disbursements arrive instantly.

The migration is consumer-led but bottlenecked on the institution side: 78% of FPC respondents rate fraud detection as a critical enabler, and 72% rate consumer/business banking platforms as critical — yet only 24–34% of financial institutions are expected to have these fully enabled by year-end 2026.

Market opportunities

A broad overview of where instant-rail momentum sits across the U.S. money-movement landscape today.

01

Large pools remain on legacy rails

Sizeable categories still move predominantly via paper check or standard ACH. Insurance claims and parts of government and B2B-adjacent flows are the clearest examples — meaningful volume that has not yet migrated, and where instant rails have room to expand.

~$900B insurance pool · est. $300–490B still on paper check.
02

Migration is market-led; fraud is the brake

Consumers have already adopted instant payments at scale and now expect them by default, pulling speed-sensitive flows — Earned Wage Access, digital lending, gig payouts, and wallet funding — onto push-to-debit, RTP, and FedNow. The constraint now sits with financial institutions: fraud exposure on irrevocable instant credits is the dominant concern, and only a minority of FIs are expected to have the necessary fraud-detection capabilities fully enabled by year-end 2026.

74% of consumers have used instant payments · 78% of FIs flag fraud detection as the critical capability gap.
03

Out of scope — worth exploring next

This scan focuses on the seven consumer-touching segments. Several adjacent areas were not in scope and could materially change the picture as they mature — stablecoin and crypto rails (international corridors and treasury operations), B2B flows (invoice, supplier, and trade finance), bill-pay, and Request-for-Pay.

Areas to investigate: stablecoins · B2B · bill-pay · Request-for-Pay
Sources & methodology

Figures combine published primary disclosures (network operators, regulators, public-company filings) with secondary sources and directional estimates where data is incomplete. Where 2025 figures are not available, the most recent year available is used as the anchor. Speed-sensitivity ratings draw on the 2025 U.S. Faster Payments Council Adoption Outlook and PYMNTS Disbursements research.

  1. [1] U.S. Faster Payments Council (2025), Instant Payments Adoption Outlook.
  2. [2] PYMNTS (2026), Instant payments hit mainstream (74% adoption).
  3. [3] PYMNTS, Consumers want control and choose instant payments.
  4. [4] PYMNTS (2025), Wallets and debit cards overtake bank accounts.
  5. [5] PYMNTS (2025), 58% of U.S. banks use both RTP and FedNow.
  6. [6] NACHA (2025), Same Day ACH & B2B propel ACH network growth.
  7. [7] NACHA, Top 50 FI ACH originators & receivers (2024).
  8. [8] NACHA, Same Day ACH payment-limit increase to $10M.
  9. [9] The Clearing House (2025), "A November to Remember" (RTP).
  10. [10] ABA Banking Journal (2025), RTP network hits 1.8M daily transactions.
  11. [11] Federal Reserve, 2024 Federal Reserve Payments Study.
  12. [12] Federal Reserve Financial Services, FedNow volume & value statistics.
  13. [13] FXC Intelligence, Visa Direct Investor Day.
  14. [14] Visa, Visa Direct funds-availability release.
  15. [15] PYMNTS (2025), Mastercard Move transactions grow 35%.
  16. [16] Mastercard, Mastercard Move (product overview).
  17. [17] Early Warning, Zelle 2025 results ($1.2T / 4.2B / +20%).
  18. [18] Digital Transactions, Zelle record $1T volume.
  19. [19] Block, Inc. (XYZ), Form 10-K FY2025.
  20. [20] PayPal Holdings, Q4 2025 earnings release.
  21. [21] BLS, Employment & Wages (QCEW).
  22. [22] BLS, Median weekly earnings $1,204 (2025).
  23. [23] CFPB, Paycheck Advance Data Spotlight.
  24. [24] Market.us, Earned Wage Access market report.
  25. [25] Uber Technologies, Form 10-K FY2025.
  26. [26] DoorDash, Inc., Form 10-K FY2025.
  27. [27] Lyft, Inc., Form 10-K FY2025.
  28. [28] Maplebear (Instacart), Form 10-K FY2025.
  29. [29] Upwork, Inc., Form 10-K FY2025.
  30. [30] DoorDash, Fast Pay (instant payout).
  31. [31] Instacart, Instant Cashout.
  32. [32] Gridwise, Uber driver pay.
  33. [33] MBO Partners, State of Independence.
  34. [34] BLS, Contingent & alternative employment arrangements.
  35. [35] TechBullion (2025), Digital lending platforms originated $47B.
  36. [36] TransUnion, Q4 2025 Credit Industry Insights Report.
  37. [37] NAIC, 2024 P&C and Title Insurance Industries Analysis.
  38. [38] ACLI, 2025 Life Insurers Fact Book.
  39. [39] Insurance Information Institute, Benefits and Claims.
  40. [40] World Bank, Personal remittances, paid — United States (BM.TRF.PWKR.CD.DT).
  41. [41] BBVA Research, Mexico record remittances 2024.
  42. [42] BBVA Research, Mexico remittances fall 4.6% in 2025.
  43. [43] U.S. Treasury, Federal Disbursement Services (FDS), FY2025.

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