Why Faster Payments Are Raising the Stakes for Fraud Prevention

Instant Payments are reaching a new level of scale in the US.

On 1 May 2026, the RTP network settled a record 2.27 million transactions worth $8.62 billion in a single day. By Q2, RTP had processed 142 million Payments worth $576 billion, while more than 1,800 financial institutions were live on FedNow by July.

Both networks can now carry individual Payments of up to $10 million, with funds moving in seconds and settlement final on arrival.

This speed is transforming Payments. It is also changing how financial institutions need to think about fraud.

The FBI recorded $20.877 billion in reported internet crime losses in 2025, up 26% from the previous year and the highest on record. FTC data separately shows consumers reported losing around $16 billion to fraud.

The problem is not that faster Payments create fraud. It is that they dramatically reduce the time available to detect and stop it.

The Fraud-Detection Window Is Shrinking

Instant Payments settle with finality.

Unlike traditional Payment flows, there is little time to identify suspicious activity before funds move. Once an RTP or FedNow Payment has been sent and settled, stopping or recovering those funds becomes considerably more difficult.

This changes the fraud model for banks.

Controls that once operated during or after a transaction increasingly need to move upstream. Risk assessment must happen before the Payment leaves the account, often within seconds.

For financial institutions, real-time fraud detection is becoming part of the Payment journey itself.

Fraudsters Are Targeting the Customer

The threat is changing too.

Fraud increasingly relies on convincing legitimate customers to send money themselves rather than simply stealing their credentials or gaining unauthorised access to their accounts.

Reported losses from imposter scams reached $3.5 billion in 2025, nearly three times the level reported in 2020. Phishing and spoofing were also the most reported crime type in the FBI's latest report, generating 191,561 complaints.

This makes authorised push payment fraud particularly difficult to identify.

A Payment may come from the genuine customer, using their real device, account and credentials. The fraud can lie in the intent behind the transaction.

Authentication alone therefore cannot provide the complete answer.

Financial institutions increasingly need to understand not only who is making the Payment, but also whether the behaviour, beneficiary and circumstances surrounding it indicate risk.

Receiving Institutions Are Becoming Part of the Defence

Fraud prevention is also moving beyond the sending side of the transaction.

Authorised push payment fraud needs somewhere for the stolen money to go, often through mule accounts, compromised accounts or synthetic identities.

The shift towards greater receiving-side responsibility can already be seen in ACH. Under Nacha's 2026 fraud-monitoring rules, receiving institutions are required to establish risk-based processes designed to identify incoming credit entries suspected of fraud or false pretences.

The requirements were phased in from March 2026 and extended to all RDFIs in June.

This has important implications for mule detection.

What was once treated primarily as an onboarding and account-monitoring challenge is increasingly becoming a Payments risk challenge too.

Receiving institutions need to understand unusual account behaviour, transaction velocity and other signals that may indicate an account is being used to receive fraudulent funds.

Fraud Controls Are Moving Before the Payment

Payment infrastructure is evolving in the same direction.

In April 2026, the Federal Reserve launched a network intelligence API for FedNow participants, giving sending institutions access to receiver account-level risk insights before releasing a Payment.

Financial institutions can combine these network-level signals with their own data and fraud controls to assess the potential risk of a transaction before it is sent.

Alongside richer ISO 20022 data, behavioural intelligence, velocity controls and Payee Name Verification, the direction is becoming clear.

Fraud prevention is moving earlier in the Payment journey.

As Payments become faster, financial institutions need to make decisions about risk at the same speed.

The Next Challenge for US Payments

The question for financial institutions is no longer simply how to make Payments faster.

It is how to make an informed decision about risk before a Payment becomes final.

That requires closer coordination between fraud, Payments, compliance and technology teams, as well as better use of behavioural, beneficiary and network-level intelligence.

The institutions that get this right will not have to choose between speed and security. They will build fraud controls capable of operating at the speed modern Payments demand.

Join the Conversation in Austin

These challenges will be part of the conversation at the 26th NextGen Payments & RegTech Forum, taking place on 10 November 2026 at the W Hotel, Austin, Texas.

Connect with and learn from 250+ industry leaders and experts from world-leading organisations including Visa, PayPal, Wells Fargo, Capital One, Charles Schwab, Truist, Regions Bank, PNC, Wise, Texas Capital, the American Bankers Association, Dow Jones, Splunk and many more, as they share insights on the future of Payments, Fraud prevention and regulation in the US.

Join the conversation and connect with the leaders shaping the next generation of Payments and fraud prevention in the US.

Register and view the agenda: https://www.qubevents.com/nextgen-payments-regtech-austin 

For sponsorship or registration enquiries: info@qubevents.com 

By Zinah Abdaki, CMO at QUBE Events