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Finastra, a global provider of financial software applications and marketplaces, announced it has completed testing and certification for the FedNow Service, becoming one of the first vendors in the industry to complete the process.
The Federal Reserve’s new instant payments service, launching in July 2023, will be integrated into Finastra’s Payments To Go and will later be added to its Global PAYplus solution, providing financial institutions across the United States with instant payments capabilities on the cloud.
Finastra’s cloud-based payments processing solution Payments To Go, together with its Total Messaging gateway, provides the connectivity, availability, agility, and scale needed for banks to deliver instant payments services around the clock.
With Finastra’s certified connection to the FedNow Service, financial institutions can easily and rapidly offer instant payments. Delivered via an open API, business customers can access the FedNow Service through an intuitive portal, enabling them to seamlessly initiate payments and submit pay requests.
Among the first financial institutions using Finastra’s Payments To Go for FedNow services is Texas-based Amarillo National Bank. Ross Kerns, Senior Vice President and CFO at Amarillo National Bank said, “We are excited that we’ll soon be able to offer the benefits of FedNow to our customers. We selected Finastra’s Payments To Go solution because we found it to be the right tool to help us enhance our customer experience and advance our innovation strategy. We’re thankful that our partners at Finastra are enabling us to meet and exceed our business objectives.”
“It has always been important to Finastra that we empower financial institutions to stay ahead of market developments as consumers and businesses now expect instant payments to the norm. The FedNow Service enables new avenues for elevated customer experiences and unlocks revenue-generating opportunities that are critical to the success of institutions across the country,” said Barry Rodrigues, EVP of Finastra’s Payments Business Unit.
“With our many years of experience innovating in the instant payments space across the globe, we are pleased to be a FedNow certified provider and look forward to equipping our customers with this new tool so they can be successful for years to come.”
Finastra’s participation in the FedNow pilot program, which supports the development, testing and adoption of the service, allows its customers to be among the first financial institutions to go live quickly and efficiently as soon as the service launches this summer.
Joseph T. Baptista Jr., President and CEO of Mechanics Cooperative Bank said, “Finastra’s inclusion in the FedNow pilot, and now its early certification, is helping us stay a step ahead of the competition, giving us an edge as we await the official launch of the new payment rail. Adopting an agile and cloud-based payments hub was important to our team, so we turned to our long-time partners at Finastra to help us achieve our goals in the payments space. We look forward to working closely with Finastra over the coming months as we ensure our readiness to adopt the service.”
Recent Research from Aite-Novarica Group, supported by Finastra, indicates that instant payments is an important area of growth and innovation within the commercial banking space, however, 76% of respondents indicated that legacy payments systems are an obstacle to rolling out these services.
Cloud implementations, and Payments-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions in particular, level the playing field of accessibility to new payment technology, with 91% of banks already completing a transition of payments processing to the cloud or having plans to do so.
“Payments as a Service solutions and payments hubs, being much more accessible than ever before, are key to the success of community banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions as they work to remain competitive against the larger banks and fintechs,” said Erika Baumann, Director, Commercial Banking and Payments at Aite-Novarica Group.
“It is important that financial institutions modernize their payments systems to meet customer demand for access to faster payments, accelerate their time to market, and to help reduce their risks and overall operational costs.”
