“The rapid expenditure of COVID emergency relief payments highlighted the critical importance of having a resilient instant payments infrastructure with nationwide reach, especially for households and small businesses with cashflow constraints,” Brainard said. Not all observers agree with the Fed's approach. The central bank noted Thursday that it received more than 2,200 letters from commenters arguing that it “should not operate in competition with the private sector,” and that FedNow Service would represent “an inappropriate expansion of the Federal Reserve’s role.”

https://fortune.com/2020/08/09/fednow-real-time-digital-payments-the-fed/?utm_content=2020081015pm