Real-time payments (RTP) are payment transactions that clear and settle within seconds, 24/7/365, providing immediate confirmation to both sender and receiver.

Unlike traditional payment rails that batch process overnight or take days to settle, RTP networks—FedNow in the US, NPP in Australia, Faster Payments in the UK—move money instantly. For customers, this means no more "2-3 business days" waiting periods. For support teams, it means different problems to solve.

The good news: real-time payments eliminate timing-related support tickets. "When will my payment arrive?" becomes irrelevant when arrival is immediate. The challenging news: there's no recall window. Once an RTP transaction settles, it's final. Misdirected payments, fat-finger errors, and authorized push payment fraud all become harder to remediate.

Build your support processes for this finality. Confirmation screens should be crystal clear about where money is going. Error messaging needs to catch mistakes before submission, not after. Your fraud detection must work in real-time—you can't review transactions post-settlement. And your agents need clear escalation paths for the inevitable "I sent money to the wrong person" calls, even when the answer is uncomfortable.

Related terms: Open banking, Transaction approval rate, Payment failure rate

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# Insurtech-Specific Terms