SoFi and Galileo Unleash Full Power of FedNow Instant Payments

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – April 13, 2026 – The days of waiting for money to move between bank accounts are numbered for SoFi members. In a significant advancement for consumer finance, SoFi, N.A. announced it now offers instant bank transfers through the Federal Reserve's FedNow® Service, powered by its technology platform, Galileo Financial Technologies. The new capability allows SoFi members to send and receive money in seconds between their accounts and those at other U.S. banks, operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

This move positions SoFi (NASDAQ: SOFI) at the forefront of the real-time payments revolution. While over a thousand financial institutions have joined the FedNow network since its launch in 2023, most have cautiously limited their offering to only receiving payments. By enabling both send and receive functionalities, SoFi is delivering on the full promise of an instant payment ecosystem, directly challenging the legacy systems that have long defined banking timelines.

A New Standard for Consumer Finance

For the average consumer, the difference is profound. Traditional ACH transfers can take two to three business days to clear, a delay that creates friction in personal financial management. With this integration, the wait is eliminated. A SoFi member can now instantly pull funds from an external bank account to cover an impending bill or push money to another account to maintain a minimum balance, all without regard for banking hours, weekends, or holidays.

“Helping our members get their money right means giving them control over their money in real time, not days later,” said Anthony Noto, CEO of SoFi, in the company's announcement. “Money should move instantly and without limits, but legacy technology and data systems fail to provide a safe and reliable platform to achieve instant and limitless money movement.”

This capability directly addresses a well-documented consumer demand. Recent industry research shows that nearly 79% of consumers expect their financial institutions to offer instant payment services. The most common use cases—paying friends and family, transferring money between personal accounts, and paying bills—are all fundamentally improved by the speed and availability of a service like FedNow. By meeting this expectation head-on, SoFi aims to make everyday financial tasks seamless and stress-free.

SoFi's Strategic Play in a Crowded Market

In the highly competitive digital banking arena, SoFi's comprehensive adoption of FedNow serves as a powerful differentiator. While large incumbents like Chase and Bank of America are part of the network, the widespread rollout of consumer-facing send capabilities has been methodical and slow across the industry, largely due to complexities around security and infrastructure. SoFi’s ability to leapfrog this phase provides a distinct competitive advantage.

This feature is more than a convenience; it is a strategic tool for customer acquisition and retention. By solving a major pain point, SoFi strengthens its value proposition as a primary financial partner. New members can bring money into the SoFi ecosystem from an external account and immediately begin using products like SoFi Checking and Savings, investing, or credit services. This frictionless onboarding experience is critical for capturing and retaining a digitally native customer base that has little patience for archaic processes.

For SoFi, this move is another crucial step in building a comprehensive, all-in-one financial services platform. Integrating bidirectional, real-time payments deepens the utility of its ecosystem and reinforces its brand as a modern, technology-first institution.

Galileo's Role as an Industry-Wide Accelerator

Behind this consumer-facing innovation is the sophisticated infrastructure provided by Galileo Financial Technologies, SoFi’s technology division. Galileo provides the direct connection to the FedNow Service, the payment processing technology, and the critical controls needed to ensure these real-time transactions are executed safely and reliably.

“For customers, waiting days for money to show up doesn’t match how payments work today,” noted Bill Kennedy, CFO and interim head of Galileo. “By pairing FedNow® Service with Galileo’s platform, SoFi gives members instant access to their money whenever they need it, while we manage the infrastructure behind the scenes.”

The significance of Galileo's work extends far beyond its parent company. Having built and deployed a production-ready FedNow integration for SoFi, Galileo has created a blueprint that can accelerate adoption across the entire financial industry. The company plans to extend these capabilities to other fintechs, digital banks, and companies embedding financial services, using SoFi Bank as the partner bank. This “Banking-as-a-Service” model allows other firms to launch instant payment experiences without the immense cost and complexity of establishing their own direct connection to the network.

This positions Galileo as a key enabler in the modernization of U.S. payments, offering a scalable and secure pathway for more institutions to join the real-time economy. Its platform already supports a variety of payment rails, including ACH, wires, and The Clearing House's RTP® network, solidifying its role as a central hub for modern money movement.

Navigating the High-Stakes World of Real-Time Risk

The immense power of instant payments comes with commensurate risk. The speed of FedNow transactions, which settle in seconds, compresses the window for fraud detection from hours or days to mere milliseconds. Once an illicit transfer is completed, the funds are often unrecoverable. This reality has been a major factor in the industry's cautious approach to enabling send functionality.

Legacy fraud prevention tools, designed for batch-based systems like ACH, are ill-equipped for the 24/7, real-time environment. Financial institutions must now invest in advanced systems that can analyze transactions for risk signals and make decisions instantly. Furthermore, FedNow participants must adhere to a strict legal framework under the Federal Reserve's Regulation J and maintain robust anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions compliance programs.

Galileo addresses these challenges at the platform level. Its technology incorporates real-time transaction screening, customizable payment controls, and advanced fraud detection capabilities designed specifically for an instant payment world. By providing this secure foundation, Galileo not only enables the speed and convenience that consumers demand but also manages the complex risks that operate behind the scenes, ensuring that the future of instant money is also a secure one.