Financial Institutions FAQ

To get Instant Bank Pay service, FIs must first execute Sionic’s Fraud Detection Service and Instant Bank Pay service agreements. These agreements may first be reviewed during the due diligence process once an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) is signed by both parties and they have agreed to proceed with an alliance.

There is no cost for banks and other financial institutions to offer Instant Bank Pay service. FIs pay no additional fees for Instant Bank Pay outside what they already pay to participate in the RTP^® network and FedNow^® service.

Once agreements are executed, FIs will be onboarded by Sionic into the ULink^® Admin Portal via Google Cloud Platform (GCP), until final implementation into GCP Marketplace occurs. FI-designated administrators will receive an email notification from our support team confirming account activation.

Sionic will send your administrator digital marketing materials (custom emails, custom web page designs, etc.) to use as awareness campaigns to invite your business and personal account holders to use Instant Bank Pay.

FIs also receive a bank-branded version of Sionic’s CODE Pay mobile app for small business merchant account holders who want to participate in the Instant Bank Pay program. See “What is CODE Pay” in this FAQ.

Once campaigns are launched, Sionic will provide onboarding support and additional marketing support as needed.

No. All marketing to personal account holders and merchant business customers will be done by the financial institution. Sionic provides digital materials to help financial institutions with their marketing efforts. However, Sionic and a financial institution may agree to co-market and collaborate on marketing initiatives to either personal account or business merchant customers, or both.

Instant Bank Pay is for both personal and business customers. For consumers, it enables fast, more secure, and convenient payments directly from their bank account. Plus, they may receive Perks at participating merchants. For businesses, it lowers payment acceptance costs, eliminates chargebacks, and provides instant access to funds. Finally, Instant Bank Pay uses agentic AI to help secure payments and resolve merchant–customer disputes without FI intervention.

Sionic is currently integrated with Jack Henry’s PayCenter^TM for direct access to RTP^® and FedNow^® environments. FIs using PayCenter may enable Instant Bank Pay by agreeing to support Send, Receive, and Request for Payment (RfP) personas through Jack Henry. FI onboarding through Jack Henry may take less than 30 days to complete.

Additional Service Providers / software providers will be added soon.

FIs connecting directly to RTP and FedNow simply grant access to the networks using a Participation Agreement enabling Sionic to insert ISO 20022 messaging using their participation IDs. There is no physical integration required, and timing can occur within a few weeks.

Upon completion of the onboarding process, FIs will receive a custom email template and webpage containing an invite link to share with business account holders.

Upon completion of the onboarding process, FIs will receive a custom email, push notification, and text message templates containing an invite link to share with personal account holders.

CODE Pay is a mobile app provided by Sionic to allow merchants to receive instant digital cash deposits at the point of sale without needing additional hardware, and enables those merchants to offer instant Perks to customers who pay with their bank accounts. For more information on CODE Pay, please refer to our CODE Pay FAQs.

Yes. CODE Pay supports both QR code reads and Tap-to-Pay on both iOS and Android mobile devices.

No. Merchants who use Instant Bank Pay will pay a small transaction fee to Sionic for each completed transaction. There are no fees or charges to FIs.

Small business merchants who participate in the Instant Bay Pay program pay Sionic a 1% fee for successful transactions. Larger enterprise merchants pay a flat fee ranging from $0.05 to $100.00 per transaction depending upon average checkout amounts and transaction volume.

Financial institutions determine the appropriate fees for the business merchants they work with. The Sionic settlement engine supports financial institutions in charging the following: flat monthly fees (treasury services); basis points as a percentage; and flat, per-transaction fees. This revenue can be used to offset any loss of interchange fees. Financial institution fees to business merchants are separate (or incremental) from the fees charged by Sionic.

Larger FIs are directly connected to RTP^® and FedNow^® payment rails. Core processors that provide the connection to the instant payment networks for FIs will need to connect to Sionic via an API. Sionic currently supports Jack Henry’s PayCenter^TM. Additional Service Providers / software providers will be added soon.

Merchants accepting only debit and credit cards via payment processors will not need to make changes. They can opt to accept Instant Bank Pay via participating financial institutions. In the future, some card payment processors may opt to support Sionic’s Instant Bank Pay gateway and will see their daily reporting alongside card transactions.

No. Participating in either FedNow^® or the RTP^® network will enable your financial institution to integrate and leverage all the benefits of Instant Bank Pay. Sionic’s routing switch requires FIs to support all three payment personas: Send, Receive, and Request for Payment (RfP), even though RTP currently does not permit RfP at the point of sale.

Yes. Both the RTP^® network from The Clearing House and the FedNow^® service support point-of-purchase (POS) transactions as a permissible use case. Sionic’s Instant Bank Pay is built to operate on these real-time rails, enabling merchants to receive funds instantly at checkout. Depending on the instant payment network used, the payment message used may be different.

Yes, with the exception RTP Network currently prohibits point of sale transactions using the Request for Payment (RfP) persona. Sionic’s message insertion service avoids RTP RfP commerce transactions. Instant Bank Pay operates independent of Zelle, ACH, and wire transfers.

FIs will need to configure their RTP^® or FedNow^® connections and accounts to support RfP transactions per network specifications in those cases when a RfP message is required.

Purchase payments are as susceptible to fraud as any other payment transaction. Sionic understands this concern and has integrated advanced security protocols co-developed with Google, utilizing Vertex AI and decentralized identifiers (DIDs), in the Instant Bank Pay to ensure the highest possible level of transaction security. All transactions using Instant Bank Pay undergo fraud screening. These technologies enable real-time, AI-driven fraud detection and prevention measures, ensuring that all transactions are as secure as possible.

Disputes are managed directly between the customer (payer) and the merchant (payee)—no bank involvement is required. Customers start the dispute by selecting the transaction in their Bank Perks pass. Both parties can optionally use AI agents after initiation to resolve the dispute. However, outcomes follow the payee’s refund policies. FIs have visibility into disputed transactions, should escalation be required.

Instant Bank Pay is designed for enterprise merchants, resellers, financial institutions, small businesses, and online retailers. The only requirement is that their core bank must participate in either the FedNow^® service or the RTP^® network.

Financial institutions offset lost card/interchange revenue by introducing new revenue streams, such as monthly service fees, incremental transaction fees, fraud services, and data insights. FIs will also gain revenue for transactions that would otherwise have been cash-based. Instant payments also keep deposits in-bank, strengthening liquidity and relationships.

Usage of Instant Bank Pay is not a cost to FIs but there will be resources needed for API integration, staff education, and marketing and awareness efforts. In this sense, the timeframe  will be short even as it will vary by financial institution. Financial institutions that are focused on potential decreases in interchange revenue should also include factors like pricing strategy, merchant adoption, zero delinquency and losses associated with credit cards, and transaction volume from purchases that would otherwise have been cash.

(i.e. We’re “receive only” on the networks today because we don’t feel we have a business case for “send.”)

Consumers now expect “instant” solutions, banks are rapidly adopting RTP^® and FedNow^®, and merchants are seeking lower-cost, chargeback-free alternatives to cards. Instant Bank Pay gives your FI an immediate business case for “Send” and “RfP” by reducing costs, meeting rising demand, strengthening fraud controls, and positioning you to capture growth as real-time rails scale. Waiting risks losing both relevance and revenue to faster-moving competitors.

Instant Bank Pay anticipates launching pilot and beta programs with multiple FIs in 4Q2025 directly integrated with Sionic and financial institutions using Jack Henry.