In July, the Federal Reserve officially launched FedNow, its set of real-time payment rails. It’s an accomplishment deserving of celebration: the on-time delivery of a complex, multi-year project that establishes the foundation for the next generation of payments capabilities for consumers, businesses, and financial institutions.

While acknowledging the milestone, the Fed is clear that it merely marks the beginning of a long-term pursuit of ubiquity and innovation.

The U.S. is far from the first country to implement a set of instant payment rails—and the Fed isn’t even the first to the party in this country. The Clearing House introduced its real-time payment system (branded RTP) in late 2017, and recently announced the completion of 500 million transactions.

Credit unions are playing a significant role in this transformation. Seven natural person and four corporate credit unions were among the 35 financial institutions live on FedNow for its July 20 debut. By mid-November, that number had passed 150.

Conversations with several of these early adopters reveal several common themes, including enthusiasm for the service opportunities the real-time technology enables, a desire to stay relevant to members, and an awareness that the true benefits will play out over time.

“We’re not only focusing on our current members, but also our future ones,” says Katelyn Brown, director of accounting at $1 billion asset Pima Federal Credit Union in Tucson, Ariz. “In order for us to grow and be here in 10 years, we have to be on top of things like this.”

Minal Gupta, vice president of remote services at $10.3 billion asset Star One Credit Union in Sunnyvale, Calif., has a similar opinion. “From the get-go, we saw value in the product. This was something we’d been waiting for,” she says, adding that Star One signed up for the Fed’s pilot immediately.

Despite similar levels of enthusiasm, these credit unions took different approaches to implementation. Pima Federal worked through longtime partner Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union, also a FedNow early adopter, to help roll out the capabilities to members.

“Catalyst is doing a lot of the heavy lifting, including monitoring liquidity overnight and for weekends and holidays,” says Brown.

That’s a key consideration for instant payments because funds move continually.

Pima Federal also entered the market in “receive-only” mode, meaning members can receive instant payments but can’t yet send them. “We wanted to get our feet wet first,” Brown explains, adding that they anticipate enabling send capabilities in the near future.

Star One, by contrast, offered send and receive from day one, and built the functionality directly into its own member-facing application, supported by Tyfone. InstantPay, as Star One calls it, simply appears as a new option alongside same-day automated clearinghouse, which the credit union already offered in the app.

FedNow isn’t intended to be a customer-facing brand. “Our members don’t even know they’re using FedNow,” Gupta adds.

Star One’s approach led to a bit of serendipity on FedNow’s first day of live production. “Within the first hour, one of our members found the new option on the app without any marketing,” she recalls.

He used the new option to transfer funds to his daughter—something he otherwise would have done through a less immediate process.

NEXT: Seeking relevance