Implementing this approach would significantly increase the required level of commitment and active engagement of the private-sector instant payment service operator from the outset. In order to minimize time to market, additional features of the FedNow Service would be introduced in phases after launch.
It will be important for the FedNow Service to support aliasbased payments, whereby a payment can be sent to a recipient using an alias, such as an email address or phone number, rather than requiring an account number. But providing this feature securely requires addressing legal, operational, and security challenges that would increase the time to market for the core service.