Community Banks Weigh Real-Time Payment Options as Fed Goes Slow

The Federal Reserve’s slow wind up to deploying real-time payments could prompt community banks to join a network owned by their big-bank competitors.

While most community banks would prefer to work with the Fed’s planned real-time payments system, some don’t want to wait three or four years for the project to launch—especially with their larger competitors and fintech firms already offering those services to consumers and small businesses.

Community banks that want to stay viable “are going to have to come to grips with the real-time payments decision sooner or later,” said Preston Kennedy, chairman of the Independent Community Bankers ...