Real-time payments (RTP) and FedNow were launched to modernize the U.S. payments landscape, yet adoption remains surprisingly limited. Instant payments still represent just 0.39% of U.S. volume per an Accenture diagnostic study, which will not reach expectations even with a projected 18% compound annual growth rate from 2024 to 2029.

TCH, their owner banks and the Federal Reserve more than $320 million in RTP and $545 million in FedNow), and many face what we call “instant payments fatigue.” The majority on the RTP and FedNow networks remain in receive-only mode and largely struggle to identify clear monetization pathways and realize meaningful returns on investment. Corporates, meanwhile, remain cautious. Some have significant desire for instant or 24/7 settlement but see the migration from existing payment methods and integration with ERPs as a daunting and unnecessary task. Legacy systems, fraud concerns, and the absence of verticalized solutions are also slowing adoption and dampening already-measured outlooks. Plus, banks’ attention is now turning to the next innovations of stablecoins and AI, which could take resources away from the use and expansion of real-time solutions.

The missing link: why “faster” isn’t enough

To unlock the full potential of instant payments, the U.S. market needs more than speed. It needs intelligent, vertical-specific “overlays” that integrate data (and requisite security), industry context and workflow logic directly into payment flows to transform how banks operate and how corporates move money. Overlays can be described as enhanced payment capabilities that facilitate and justify the migration from older, less beneficial payment methods to the better real-time alternative. They are built on top of real-time payment rails that enhance data, context and functionality for specific industries. These vertical-specific overlays are a type of value-added service, which clients want from their payments providers.

Our previous Commercial Payments Reinvented study found that almost 60% of clients favor banks as the preferred provider over fintechs for value-added services such as advanced data dashboards and real-time payments. And more importantly, commercial customers are willing to pay 8.1% of their annual payments costs towards value-added payment services, which could represent hundreds of billions of dollars in additional revenue for banks.

“Smarter” overlay solutions meet these needs for value-added services. They integrate seamlessly into existing workflows and add the contextual intelligence that banks and corporates desperately need. This is important as our new Future of Money research found that 78% of banks are still struggling to add RTP capabilities to their existing infrastructure due to legacy infrastructure. Overlays can help institutions overcome persistent hurdles such as legacy system integration, unclear business priorities and fraud risk through ERP-ready, cloud-native deployment that doesn’t require years of infrastructure overhaul.

But how would overlays work? They’re the missing layer between the speed capability and the business value that banks and corporates need to see. Overlays leverage the new rails’ expansive messaging capacity and ISO20022 data standardization to enable the exchange of data with the payment—enabling the streamlining and consolidation of information flows, the elimination of burdensome reconciliations and the promise of new insights that have been previously unattainable.

Accenture is actively co-investing with banks, partners like AWS and payment networks to develop these overlays, working to accelerate adoption and unlock new revenue streams across the ecosystem.

What payment overlays can unlock

When designed and implemented thoughtfully, overlays do far more than enable faster money movement. They fundamentally transform how corporates operate and how banks create value from payments.

• Workflow integration: Embed payment logic, approval workflows and reconciliation directly into corporate ERP or treasury systems, eliminating manual steps and reducing errors.

• Data-rich payments: Leverage structured metadata and ISO 20022-compliant information for better reconciliation, cash-flow forecasting and real-time analytics.

• Vertical-specific governance and security: Support industry-mandated privacy and compliance requirements (such as HIPAA for healthcare, PCI-DSS for retail, or GLBA for financial services) without compromising speed or adding operational complexity.

• AI-enabled intelligence: Apply machine learning to fraud detection, dynamic risk management and autonomous cash-flow optimization on behalf of corporate clients.

• New revenue models: Offer differentiated services and dynamic pricing structures to corporate clients, unlocking premium monetization based on real-time, data-enhanced capabilities rather than commodity pricing.

Not all verticals are created equal

Some industries, including insurance, healthcare, supply chain and energy, are naturally positioned to benefit from payment overlays and drive ecosystem-wide adoption faster than others. High-opportunity verticals use cases tend to exhibit need for both instant or 24/7 settlement and data intensity, sharing these characteristics:

• Accelerated paths to adoption: Closed or semi-closed ecosystems such as franchise networks, healthcare provider networks, or insurance claim workflows can simplify uptake through concentrated influence. When a dominant player has asymmetrical influence or network adopts an overlay, others often follow.

• Data-driven nature and ability to map to ISO standards: Industries with structured data standards embedded in their operations make payments genuinely “smarter” by including industry-specific information and context directly in the transaction itself.

• Timing sensitivity: Sectors like perishables, insurance claims processing, or supply-chain finance benefit dramatically from 24/7 settlement and reduced credit risk. For these industries, the financial and operational impact of faster payments is immediate and quantifiable.

• Broad applicability and expansion potential: Designing overlays with modularity in mind so they can be deployed within a vertical, across verticals, or embedded in marketplaces yields far more measurable impact than broad, undifferentiated rollouts.

• Cost syndication potential: Ecosystem models where participants share the cost of overlay development and deployment make these investments more efficient and economically sustainable for everyone involved.

Your path forward

The U.S. instant payments infrastructure is in place. Real-time rails are operating. Yet true adoption will not accelerate without smarter, verticalized solutions that address the specific needs of high-value industries. Vertical overlays represent the missing layer in the value stack. They can unlock ROI for banks, operational efficiency for corporates and monetization potential for the entire ecosystem.

Accenture is actively co-investing with institutions to build these overlays, modernize core systems and integrate capabilities across API, SaaS and AI layers. We’re working to help banks and financial institutions move beyond the speed imperative and compete on the intelligence differentiator.

Let’s get started

Interested in learning more about how real-time payment overlays can help your organization unlock the full promise of instant payments? Get in touch to schedule a demo with our team.

Are you headed to The Clearing House Annual Conference in New York? If so, join our session on November 4: “It’s Not Just the Speed: Transforming Corporate Payments through Smarter, Instant Money Movement”.

We’ll be joined by a talented group including Brian Dammeir, Head of Payments at Plaid, Kyle Hermengildo, Head of Treasury Operations at Computershare, Jerry Portocalis, Chief Commercial Officer at Paymentus, Stacey Rosenthal, Vice President, Payment Solutions at PayPal and Chris Ward, Head of Wholesale Payments at Truist.