The payment networks and schemes that move funds behind embedded-finance products. Each rail is surfaced on a company’s dossier only where its name appears in that company’s sourced stack text — never inferred. 16 rails tracked.
The Automated Clearing House is the US batch electronic funds-transfer network governed by Nacha. It moves direct deposits, bill payments, and account-to-account transfers in scheduled batches — typically same-day or next-day — and is the default low-cost rail for non-urgent USD movement.
The RTP network, launched by The Clearing House in 2017, is a real-time payments rail that settles irrevocable credit transfers 24/7/365 within seconds. It powers instant payroll, disbursements, and account-to-account transfers.
FedNow is the Federal Reserve's instant-payment service, launched in July 2023. It provides 24/7 real-time interbank clearing and settlement of USD credit transfers, giving banks a public-sector alternative to RTP.
Visa Direct is Visa's push-payments platform. Using Original Credit Transactions (OCTs), it pushes funds in near real time to eligible debit cards and accounts — powering instant payouts, P2P, and disbursements across Visa's global network.
Mastercard Send is Mastercard's push-payments platform, the network's counterpart to Visa Direct. It delivers near-real-time disbursements and transfers to cards and accounts worldwide.
Fedwire is the Federal Reserve's real-time gross settlement system for large-value, time-critical USD payments. Each wire settles individually and with finality, making it the backbone for interbank and high-value transfers.
A bank wire transfer is a real-time, final transfer of funds between banks. In the US, wires settle over Fedwire or CHIPS; cross-border wires typically route via correspondent banks over SWIFT messaging.
SWIFT is the global financial-messaging cooperative banks use to instruct cross-border payments and securities transactions. It carries the payment instructions — not the settlement itself, which occurs over correspondent-bank relationships.
SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) moves euro payments across the EEA in under ten seconds, 24/7/365. It is the instant-payment scheme of the Single Euro Payments Area, governed by the European Payments Council.
The Single Euro Payments Area harmonises euro-denominated bank transfers and direct debits across the EU/EEA. SEPA Credit Transfer and SEPA Direct Debit let businesses move euros between member-state accounts at domestic cost and speed.
Wero is the European Payments Initiative's account-to-account payment scheme, operated by Brussels-based EPI Company SE and backed by 16 European banks and PSPs. It settles euro payments between bank accounts in seconds over SEPA Instant, and runs person-to-person in Belgium, France and Germany with e-commerce rolling out from 2026. The Dutch iDEAL scheme is migrating onto Wero infrastructure, with iDEAL due to be phased out by mid-2027.
iDEAL is the dominant Dutch online payment method, a bank-redirect scheme owned and operated by Currence in which the shopper authorises a euro transfer inside their own banking app. It is being migrated onto Wero: shoppers see a combined iDEAL | Wero brand from 2026, with the iDEAL scheme fully phased out by mid-2027.
The Faster Payment System is the UK's near-instant sterling credit-transfer rail, operated by Pay.UK and live since 2008. It clears payments between UK accounts in seconds, 24/7, and is the rail behind most British payroll, disbursement, and account-to-account transfers.
The Unified Payments Interface is India's instant account-to-account rail, built and operated by the National Payments Corporation of India since 2016. It settles rupee payments between bank accounts in real time, 24/7, addressed by virtual payment address or QR code, and is the most-disclosed non-US rail in this dataset.
Pix is Brazil's instant payment rail, built and operated by the central bank and live since November 2020. It moves reais between accounts in seconds, 24/7, addressed by a Pix key or QR code, and displaced cards and boletos across large parts of Brazilian commerce within a few years of launch.
Push-to-card is the umbrella term for sending funds directly to a debit or prepaid card via card-network Original Credit Transactions — implemented through Visa Direct and Mastercard Send. It enables instant payouts to anyone with an eligible card.