It’s not quite that bad. ACHes are batched several times per day and usually complete same day.
It’ll be several years before consumers are splitting checks on fednow, an infinitesimally small use case.
It’ll be several years before consumers are splitting checks on fednow, an infinitesimally small use case.
We've been doing it for years in Europe thanks to instant SEPA payments ("SCT Inst"), and even those behind-the-times banks in the Eurozone which don't support SCT Inst have been required to support non-instant SEPA Credit Transfers, which settle next business day, since 2015.
And, by law, it cannot cost more than sending a payment within your own country (which is generally free).
It may be slightly vendor dependent, my rent is usually maybe a day or so faster depending on when I do it, but again, no reason it shouldn’t be instant. (Yes I couldn’t use my debit card but I’m not paying 5% oR so surcharge for that)
I pay my Amex card from Fidelity and the balance updates on the Amex immediately and the money comes out of Fidelity the next day.