# FedNow Service

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/providers/fednow/  
**Website:** https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow  
**APIs profiled:** 5

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.

## Kin Score — 38.2 / 100 (thin)

Scored 2026-08-20 under rubric 0.12.0. Trend: flat (+0.0 from 38.2).

| Facet | Score |
|---|---|
| Discoverability | 72.2 |
| Contract Quality | 0.0 |
| Governance | 18.2 |
| Contract Governance | 18.2 |
| Operational Transparency | 31.6 |
| Developer Ergonomics | 64.3 |
| Commercial Clarity | 44.7 |
| Access Clarity | 44.7 |

Regulatory layer — **Payments**: 51.6 (matched via tags).

## Agent readiness — 8.5 (agent-aware)

| Dimension | Value |
|---|---|
| Spec Presence | no |
| Agentic Access | no |
| Reversibility Documented | no |
| MCP Server | no |
| Auth Clarity | yes |
| Idempotency | no |
| Error Semantics | no |
| OpenAPI Examples | no |
| Rate Limit Signal | no |
| Event Surface Described | no |
| Agent Skills | no |
| Well Known Catalog | no |
| Consent Identity | no |
| Agent Card | no |
| Dry Run Mode | no |

## Access

Fee-based · Participation gated to financial institutions — onboarding: unknown, pricing: paid, trial: no (confidence: high).

## APIs (5)

- **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 (2)

- **Fednow Authentication** — mutualTLS/apiKey · 3 schemes
- **Fednow Domain Security** — TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC

## Tags

Payments, United States, Real-Time Payments, Instant Payments, ISO 20022, Account-to-Account, Scheme Operator, Federal Reserve

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Profiled by [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) and published on [APIs.io](https://apis.io/providers/fednow/). Scores are computed from the provider's own public artifacts under a published rubric.