(FRASER).
I'm a Jersey girl, and my accent shows it. My midwestern spouse guffaws when I say "donkey" or "roof." Now I'm facing yet another pronunciation challenge: irREVocable or irreVOCable?
How about you? Are you putting stress on the "rev" or on the "voke"? Or are you just stressing about the irrevocable nature of instant payments?
If so, now's the time to take a deep breath and think about benefits of irrevocability—for example, finality and certainty.
- Finality implies closure. To quote The Clearing House
on RTP: "The irrevocability of a payment sent over the RTP network enables immediate, final settlement to the payee, which is the key element of real-time payments."
- Certainty implies risk reduction. A recent Atlanta Fed paper
on the connection between instant payments and an inclusive economy notes that certainty "can offer peace of mind for [consumers who prefer cash for budgeting] and help them plan for expenses."
We already have a reliable and irrevocable bank-to-bank payment method that functions successfully: wire transfers. For instant payments, as with wire transfers, it is possible to ask the receiving institution to return an instant payment, although there is no obligation to return. As noted in the FedNow Service Readiness Guide , even receive-only participants will be able to return payments received via FedNow. So, as with all kinds of payments, it is possible to dispute and resolve payments.
Fear of the new usually implies a need for learning. At Boston Fintech Week, earlier this month, a representative of one of the nation's largest banks called customer education the "big challenge" around instant pay. Illustrating the point, a person at that same meeting was heard to remark, "Why do we need [instant payment methods] when we already have [fill in your favorite nonbank payment app here]?" The Clearing House, Federal Reserve Financial Services, and industry groups all are offering lots of opportunities to learn the ins and outs of instant pay, including a certification from NACHA and resources at the regional payments organizations.
I'm learning, too, and plan to post about experiences, risks, and opportunities related to instant pay. Meanwhile, however you pronounce it—potato 
[Ella and Satchmo], potahto [Fred and Ginger], tomato, tomahto [guess]—let's get educated about instant pay.
Thanks to payments expert Peter Tapling for inspiring this post.
By Claire Greene, payments risk expert in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed