Funds Transfer & Settlement

To foster the integrity, efficiency, and accessibility of U.S. wholesale payments and settlement systems, the Federal Reserve System offers four types of automated funds transfer and settlement services. Once posted or acknowledged, transactions processed through these services are final and irrevocable:

• Fedwire Funds Service is used by financial institutions and others with a Reserve Bank account to transfer funds, generally large-value, time-critical payments. It is the world's largest high-speed electronic payment system.
• FedNow will be used by financial institutions as an instant payment service that offers safe, real-time gross settlements 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This new, Reserve Bank-developed system is launching in 2023.
• Fedwire Securities Service is used by financial institutions and others with a Reserve Bank account to hold, maintain, and transfer securities issued by the U.S. Treasury Department and other federal agencies, government-sponsored enterprises like Fannie Mae, and certain international organizations such as the World Bank.
• National Settlement Service is used by participants in private-sector clearing arrangements to exchange and settle transactions on a multilateral basis through designated master accounts held at the Reserve Banks.

All four services are collectively owned and operated by the reserve banks. The Federal Reserve Financial Services (FRFS) team oversees these operations System-wide.