Pidgin, a secure real-time payments platform built for the future of payments, is among the first companies in the industry to complete testing and certification for the FedNowSM Service, the Federal Reserve’s new instant payment offering launching in July 2023.
The FedNow Service will “enable financial institutions to offer 24x7x365 instant payments, allowing customers to send and receive money immediately.”
Pidgin serves “as a central connection point to the FedNow Service, along with other faster payment networks, allowing financial institutions to easily deliver instant payment options to their customers for a variety of use cases.”
With Pidgin, financial institutions of all sizes “can choose to send and receive real-time payments using the FedNow Service on behalf of their retail and business account holders.”
To become certified, Pidgin completed “a comprehensive testing curriculum, which includes a robust checklist that confirms the company’s ability to transmit and process ISO® 20022 messages.”
As part of the certification, Pidgin also had “to validate they are prepared to meet the requirements to successfully operate in a 24x7x365 instant payments environment.”
Ken Montgomery, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston first vice president and FedNow Service program executive, said:
“We are excited that early adopters of all sizes across the country are making strides in their operational readiness for live transactions through the system. Completing certification is a key milestone for participating organizations to validate their ability to deliver instant payment services.”
Abhishek Veeraghanta, CEO of Pidgin, said:
“Nearly 90 percent of financial institutions, payments facilitators and other businesses are currently in the process of implementing the FedNow Service, or plan to do so in the next two years, according to a survey by Glenbrook Partners. The FedNow Service is changing the payment landscape as we know it and stakeholders across the industry are preparing to adapt. Pidgin is proud to facilitate this shift ahead of its upcoming launch and we look forward to empowering more financial institutions to offer real-time payments for their account holders.”
Pidgin makes faster payments possible “across different use cases – whether it’s paying a friend back for dinner, accepting payments from customers, paying employees, paying vendor invoices and more.”
With Pidgin, payments are “routed directly from financial institution to financial institution.”
Since the solution eliminates the need to use a holding account by a third-party provider or a virtual wallet, Pidgin says it “facilitates a more secure transaction process with lower fees. Once a transaction is complete, funds are settled and available almost immediately within the recipient’s account.”
In addition to the FedNow Service, Pidgin also “supports the use of other payment routes, including The Clearing House’s Real-Time Payments Network, and Same Day ACH.”
By supporting multiple rails, Pidgin’s flexible platform “allows payments to be routed according to speed, cost, and network.”
This enables financial institutions “to add even more value to faster payments for their account holders, ensuring funds arrive when they expect them to – at the lowest cost possible.”