I'm wondering, if the "originating" institution participates in a network like Zelle or TCH RTP, and the receiving institution does not, does the transaction try first to be "real-time" and somehow fall back to ACH or anything like that if the receiving insititution does not participate?

E.G., if we start to participate in TCH RTP or FedNow as a receiver, for example.... would I expect to see some of our ACH credit activity we receive (account holder direct deposits and such) to start coming in on RTP rails?

That seems a little far-fetched to me, but I reached out to my Core provider about posting ACH credits on the day files with credit entries are received from the Fed (rather than the settlement date of that batch), and my rep tried to sell me Zelle and RTP.

My gut says Zelle and RTP are not going to solve the problem of getting ACH Direct Deposits into an account 1-2 days ahead of the settlement date. Wondering if anyone already using one of these rails can tell me my instincts are wrong. Thanks!

if you aren't a participant in a RTP network, you can't receive RTP transactions, it's that simple. likewise, if you are a TCH RTP participant only, and my bank is FedNow only, you and i can't swap RTP, they are not interoperable like ACH is today.

Zelle and Venmo are messaging apps, tied to debit cards or bank accounts via ACH, they are not RTP transactions.

if you start participating as an RTP receiver, you may see some of your ACH transactions (and wires, and possibly even check payments) covert to RTP, but that is at the discretion of the originator/originating bank. A large number of the 3rd party vendors offering RTP software do so with the "least cost routing" option for the payment.

Coming from a bank that uses Zelle, I do know that if our customer originates a payment to a non-Zelle bank, the payment will not go in real-time but instead as a standard ACH.