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As the Federal Reserve moves closer to the expected launch next year of its real-time payments system, a survey released last week by the Federal Reserve Banks found that having faster payment capabilities helped drive satisfaction with financial institutions for more than two-thirds of consumers.

“From recurring payments to last-minute bill pay, consumers are looking for faster payment options that give them more control over the timing of their transactions with businesses,” Connie Theien, senior vice president and head of industry relations for the Federal Reserve System, said in a statement. “These findings suggest that providing consumers with safe, efficient instant payment methods for business transactions needs to be a key industry priority.”

The survey found that demand for faster payments spanned age groups and has increased as a result of the pandemic. Nearly 70 percent of consumers said having access to faster payment capabilities from their current financial institution was an important satisfaction driver.

The most likely use for real-time payments involved payments to businesses, with 77 percent of respondents listing this as their top use, followed by person-to-person and account-to-account payments, both at 62 percent.

In a survey of businesses published last fall by the Federal Reserve Banks, nine out of 10 businesses said they expected to be able to make and receive faster payments in the next three years.

Other findings from the latest survey included:

• Nearly seven out of 10 consumers use mobile payment devices to send or receive payments.
• 62 percent of consumers want a real-time view of their account balance and payments.
• 83 percent of consumers use a fintech payment app or digital wallet at least occasionally to complete transactions, including 71 percent of those 55 and older.

The study was conducted online in the second half of 2021 and included responses from 2,015 adults.

The Federal Reserve last week also issued final rules for governing the FedNow system. The final rules kept much the Fed’s 2020 proposal unchanged.

As part of the proposal, the Fed said that the recipient’s bank would make funds available “immediately after it has accepted the payment order,” and the Fed had requested comments on whether it should define “immediately.” Some commenters wanted a definition, and others did not want a definition unless all payments systems, including those in the private sector, had a consistent time frame.

The Fed decided against defining “immediately.”

“[T]he Board believes that establishing the requirement in Regulation J that a beneficiary’s bank using the FedNow Service must make funds available ‘immediately’ is sufficient to convey the need to make funds available in real time,” the Fed said in the final rule. “As the instant payment industry evolves, the time period of what is considered immediate may continue to evolve and not specifying a particular time frame in the regulation will allow necessary flexibility in the future.”

The Fed also said it would continue to examine how to address fraud, noting that the FedNow service will have fraud prevention tools,

“Over time, the Reserve Banks will augment fraud prevention tools as the FedNow Service matures,” the Fed said.