FedNow Service

The FedNow Service is an instant payments rail operated by the Federal Reserve Banks, launched in July 2023 to move funds between U.S. financial institutions in real time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with immediate interbank settlement in central bank money. It is ISO 20022 native and is one of three domestic U.S. rails alongside The Clearing House's RTP network and the ACH network. FedNow is a scheme operator, not a consumer-facing PSP; participating banks and credit unions connect over FedLine (Direct or Advantage), exchange ISO 20022 messages for customer credit transfers, requests for payment, liquidity transfers and system/account reporting, and may optionally use a small set of FedNow REST APIs (Account Balance, Network Intelligence, Participant List, Ping) exposed through the credential-gated FedLine Developer portal. Its public developer surface is documentation- and rulebook-first: ISO 20022 message specifications live behind SWIFT MyStandards and API access is restricted to enrolled institutions, so there is no open, self-serve public API.

FedNow Service publishes 5 APIs on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include Payments, United States, Real-Time Payments, Instant Payments, and ISO 20022.

FedNow Service’s developer surface includes documentation, API reference, pricing, signup flow, support, getting-started guide, engineering blog, and 13 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

38.2/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 3/100 human only saas Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-09-08 · rubric v0.20.0

AccessPaid

5 APIs

Payments United States Real-Time Payments Instant Payments ISO 20022 Account-to-Account Scheme OperatorFederal Reserve

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-09-08 · rubric v0.20.0

Composite quality — 38.2/100 · thin

Contract Quality 0.0 / 21

Developer Ergonomics 10.9 / 17

Access Clarity 7.6 / 17

Operational Transparency 3.5 / 11

Contract Governance 1.9 / 10

Discoverability 6.1 / 9

Regulatory Posture 7.7 / 15

Agent readiness — 3/100 · human only

Machine-Readable Contract 0 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 0 / 10

Documented Reversibility 0 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Payments regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.

Create-or-Update Ergonomics could not be measured. We hold no machine-readable contract for this provider to read, so there is nothing to measure a write surface against. Excluded rather than scored zero: never-measured and measured-empty are different facts. Publishing an OpenAPI is what makes this facet — and several others — scorable at all.

The six quality facets above are damped to 85 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 15. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 85% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/fednow: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

APIs 5

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

FedNow Account Balance API

Account Management API letting a participating financial institution programmatically retrieve its FedNow master account balance information. Documented on the FedLine Developer...

FedNow Network Intelligence API

Risk Mitigation API providing fraud-prevention and risk signals across the FedNow network to participating institutions. Documented on the FedLine Developer portal as an optiona...

FedNow Participant List API

Service Management API returning the current list of FedNow Service participants so an institution can confirm reachable routing endpoints before sending a payment. Documented o...

FedNow Ping API

Service Management API used to verify connectivity and availability of the FedNow Service from a participant's connection. Documented on the FedLine Developer portal as an optio...

FedNow ISO 20022 Message Specifications

The core scheme messaging surface of the FedNow Service. FedNow is ISO 20022 native and defines message types for customer credit transfers, requests for payment, interbank liqu...

Security Posture 2

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Fednow Authentication

mutualTLS/apiKey · 3 schemes

SECURITY

Fednow Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC

SECURITY

Resources

Get Started 4

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

DeveloperPortal

SignUp

GettingStarted

Sandbox

Documentation 2

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

APIReference

APIReference

Agent Surfaces 2

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

WellKnown

WellKnown

LLMsTxt

LLMsTxt

Design & Contract 2

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Conformance

Conformance

Lifecycle

Lifecycle

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

Operate 3

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Support

Support

StatusPage

StatusPage

ChangeLog

ChangeLog

Commercial 3

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Pricing

Pricing

TermsOfService

TermsOfService

PrivacyPolicy

PrivacyPolicy

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Blog

Blog

Source (apis.yml)

aid: fednow
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/fednow/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
name: FedNow Service
kind: company
description: 'The FedNow Service is an instant payments rail operated by the Federal Reserve Banks, launched in July 2023
  to move funds between U.S. financial institutions in real time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with immediate interbank
  settlement in central bank money. It is ISO 20022 native and is one of three domestic U.S. rails alongside The Clearing
  House''s RTP network and the ACH network. FedNow is a scheme operator, not a consumer-facing PSP; participating banks and
  credit unions connect over FedLine (Direct or Advantage), exchange ISO 20022 messages for customer credit transfers, requests
  for payment, liquidity transfers and system/account reporting, and may optionally use a small set of FedNow REST APIs (Account
  Balance, Network Intelligence, Participant List, Ping) exposed through the credential-gated FedLine Developer portal. Its
  public developer surface is documentation- and rulebook-first: ISO 20022 message specifications live behind SWIFT MyStandards
  and API access is restricted to enrolled institutions, so there is no open, self-serve public API.'
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  open_source: false
  commercial: true
  callable_host: false
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - pricing
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: paid
  onboarding: gated
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Fee-based · Participation gated to financial institutions
  confidence: high
  source:
  - fees
  - authentication
  generated: '2026-07-24'
  method: reviewed
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
tags:
- Payments
- United States
- Real-Time Payments
- Instant Payments
- ISO 20022
- Account-to-Account
- Scheme Operator
- Federal Reserve
created: '2026-07-24'
modified: '2026-07-24'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
apis:
- aid: fednow:fednow-account-balance-api
  name: FedNow Account Balance API
  description: Account Management API letting a participating financial institution programmatically retrieve its FedNow master
    account balance information. Documented on the FedLine Developer portal as one of the optional FedNow REST APIs; access
    is gated to enrolled institutions and no public OpenAPI is published.
  humanURL: https://www.frbservices.org/fedline-solutions/fedline-developer/fednow-apis
  tags:
  - Account Management
  - Balances
  - Real-Time Payments
  tags_raw:
  - Account Management
  - Balance
  - Real-Time Payments
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.frbservices.org/fedline-solutions/fedline-developer/fednow-apis
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.frbservices.org/fedline-solutions/fedline-developer
- aid: fednow:fednow-network-intelligence-api
  name: FedNow Network Intelligence API
  description: Risk Mitigation API providing fraud-prevention and risk signals across the FedNow network to participating
    institutions. Documented on the FedLine Developer portal as an optional FedNow REST API; access is gated to enrolled institutions
    and no public OpenAPI is published.
  humanURL: https://www.frbservices.org/fedline-solutions/fedline-developer/fednow-apis
  tags:
  - Risk Mitigation
  - Fraud
  - Real-Time Payments
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.frbservices.org/fedline-solutions/fedline-developer/fednow-apis
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.frbservices.org/fedline-solutions/fedline-developer
- aid: fednow:fednow-participant-list-api
  name: FedNow Participant List API
  description: Service Management API returning the current list of FedNow Service participants so an institution can confirm
    reachable routing endpoints before sending a payment. Documented on the FedLine Developer portal as an optional FedNow
    REST API; access is gated to enrolled institutions and no public OpenAPI is published.
  humanURL: https://www.frbservices.org/fedline-solutions/fedline-developer/fednow-apis
  tags:
  - Service Management
  - Directory
  - Real-Time Payments
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.frbservices.org/fedline-solutions/fedline-developer/fednow-apis
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.frbservices.org/fedline-solutions/fedline-developer
- aid: fednow:fednow-ping-api
  name: FedNow Ping API
  description: Service Management API used to verify connectivity and availability of the FedNow Service from a participant's
    connection. Documented on the FedLine Developer portal as an optional FedNow REST API; access is gated to enrolled institutions
    and no public OpenAPI is published.
  humanURL: https://www.frbservices.org/fedline-solutions/fedline-developer/fednow-apis
  tags:
  - Service Management
  - Connectivity
  - Real-Time Payments
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.frbservices.org/fedline-solutions/fedline-developer/fednow-apis
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.frbservices.org/fedline-solutions/fedline-developer
- aid: fednow:fednow-iso-20022-message-specifications
  name: FedNow ISO 20022 Message Specifications
  description: The core scheme messaging surface of the FedNow Service. FedNow is ISO 20022 native and defines message types
    for customer credit transfers, requests for payment, interbank liquidity transfers, and system/account reporting. The
    current message specifications, implementation guide, message flows, and readiness/testing portal are hosted on SWIFT
    MyStandards and require a SWIFT account to access.
  humanURL: https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/what-is-iso-20022-why-does-it-matter
  tags:
  - ISO 20022
  - Messaging
  - Real-Time Payments
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/what-is-iso-20022-why-does-it-matter
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www2.swift.com/mystandards/#/group/Federal_Reserve_Financial_Services
common:
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/fednow-domain-security.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow
- type: DeveloperPortal
  url: https://www.frbservices.org/fedline-solutions/fedline-developer
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.frbservices.org/resources/financial-services/fednow
- type: APIReference
  url: https://www.frbservices.org/fedline-solutions/fedline-developer/fednow-apis
- type: Pricing
  url: https://www.frbservices.org/resources/fees/fednow-2026
- type: SignUp
  url: https://www.frbservices.org/forms/fednow-service
- type: Support
  url: https://www.frbservices.org/contact
- type: GettingStarted
  url: https://www.frbservices.org/fedline-solutions/fedline-developer/sign-up
- type: Blog
  url: https://www.frbservices.org/news/fed360
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://frbservices.org/terms
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://app.frbservices.org/terms/privacy.html
- type: StatusPage
  url: https://www.frbservices.org/app/status/serviceStatus.do
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/fednow-authentication.yml
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/fednow-conformance.yml
- type: Lifecycle
  url: lifecycle/fednow-lifecycle.yml
- type: ChangeLog
  url: changelog/fednow-changelog.yml
- type: Sandbox
  url: sandbox/fednow-sandbox.yml
- type: WellKnown
  url: well-known/fednow-well-known.yml
- type: LLMsTxt
  url: llms/fednow-llms.txt
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com

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