The Platform PM

Glossary and sources

Field Guide

B2B payments: real-time payments and open banking

10

Glossary and sources

5 min read · Chapter 10 of 10

Words that mean something else here

TermWhat you'd assumeWhat it means here
Real-timeInstantRTP and FedNow settle in seconds; a vendor's "real-time" may only mean the API answered
Same Day ACHNearly instantA batch in three windows on banking days, still returnable in narrow cases
SettledThe supplier has the moneyMoved between banks; a held payment is settled and not yet usable
Request for paymentA debitA request the payer approves each time
Request for returnA reversalA request the receiving bank may refuse
Pay by bankOne productPayment initiation (UK, EU), an account link plus ACH debit (US), an RTP or FedNow push, or a bank-run wallet
ParticipantA connected bankEach scheme counts differently; a bank can be enrolled and never send
AuthorizedAllowed by the account holderIn law, a scam payment the victim sent is authorized, so most protections don't apply
FreeNo costZero to the scheme or the consumer; businesses still pay their bank and processor
Open banking volumePaymentsMostly API calls to read data: about 2.9 billion a month in the UK against about 40 million payments
Name checkOne thingA legal duty with liability (EU), a regulator's direction (UK), an optional paid service (US)

What surprised me

Placeholders in your voice, drafted from the research and the earlier guides. Rewrite each with your own moment.

"Instant is about speed." Coming from order to cash, I read RTP as a faster ACH. For business payments, the part that helps is that the money is final and arrives with the invoice number on it.

"If the rail exists, the payer can use it." I thought the network decided who could pay instantly. In the US the payer's bank decides: whether it joined, what limit it sets and whether it shows a request for payment at all.

"Open banking is about payments." Most of the traffic, and most of the money, is in reading accounts. In the US that's the part banks have started charging for.

"Someone has a rulebook for when a push goes wrong." Cards have chargebacks, and the UK reimburses consumers. A US business that pays a fraudster has its bank contract and a request the other bank can refuse.

Sources

Undated entries were read on October 13, 2026; "search result" means seen only as a search snippet or summary. Company figures are self-reported unless they come from a filing or a regulator, and list prices change often.

US instant rails and the Fed

ACH and wires

Other instant rails

Open banking

Fraud, liability and enforcement

Prices, players and deals

Reused from earlier guides on this site

Field Guides are learning notes, not legal or compliance advice. Rules and fees change; check the cited primary sources before you act on anything here.