Instant payments finally reach America with FedNow

America’s financial plumbing is overdue a spot of maintenance. The current payment “rails” on which it is based—built by a group of the country’s biggest banks to replace paper cheques—are more than half a century old and run on antiquated code. Although robust, the system is painfully slow. American payments are less sophisticated than those in the rest of the rich world, and indeed those in much of the poor world, too.It is a problem the Federal Reserve is trying to fix with a centralised instant-payments system, which it launched on July 20th. Aptly called FedNow, this will allow Americans to ping money to their compatriots, via their existing financial institutions, and for payments to settle straight away. All told, 35 banks and 16 payment providers have signed up to use the service.