What RTP and FedNow have achieved mark significant inflection points in US payments infrastructure. After the ISO 20022 deadline in November 2025, faster payments rails will be smoother with straight-through-processing (STP), streamlined reporting and compliance, and potential for enhanced interoperability. The future of US digital payments must include automated reconciliation, STP, and arguably most importantly, request for payment (RfP) if firms want to remain competitive. The RfP message type could turn real-time payments into bi-directional, eventdriven workflows that are useful for just-in-time billing for utilities for instance, or consumer initiated B2B payments through a QR code, for example. In conversation with Finextra, a representative from U.S. Bank indicated that RfP “has the promise to drive increased instant payment adoption in the US.” Returning to the point around data, they elucidated on how RfP allows businesses to send data-rich digital requests through the receiver’s bank. This initiates an immediate payment, at any time of day, any day. U.S. Bank’s view is that “RfP improves customer experiences by enhancing payer security through bank-driven authentication, and reduces risk for RfP senders by eliminating returns for unauthorised or insufficient funds compared to traditional debits.”