When ABNB Federal Credit Union (ABNB) joined The Clearing House’s RTP^® network in May 2024, it embarked on a journey that would not only modernize its payment capabilities but also redefine how it serves its members. With the guidance of The Clearing House and the expertise of Alacriti, ABNB’s payments technology services provider, ABNB seamlessly went live, ensuring members could receive money on their own terms instantly, securely, and efficiently.

Moving From Receive to Send Creates a Complete Instant Payments Experience
Many financial institutions join the RTP network as “receive only,” meaning that they can accept and process incoming real-time payments on behalf of customers but cannot initiate or send outgoing payments. Typically, they do so to familiarize themselves with the system, assess risk, and adapt their operations as needed. As financial institutions familiarize themselves with the RTP network, many are expanding to “send” to stay competitive in a market where customers can access and interact with their finances at any time. 

Working with Alacriti, ABNB Federal Credit Union decided to add “send” capabilities and offer a more complete real-time payment experience for their customers, enabling services like account-to-account transfers, immediate bill payments, and easier peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers.

A Vision Sparked by Need
For Cassandra Tucker, ABNB’s director of operations, the realization that instant payments were more than a trend came at an industry conference in 2021. When her team discovered that over 60 percent of ABNB’s members were sending payments to other financial institutions already on the RTP network, she knew ABNB had to dive in. The credit union’s underserved members stood to benefit from features like the ability to pay bills at more flexible hours to avoid late fees, or the ability to access earned wages immediately.

“As a credit union with just under $1 billion in asset size, we invest in innovation really efficiently,” said Tucker. To build a solid use case for instant payments, Alacriti aided ABNB in analyzing ACH and credit card transaction data to identify their members’ needs. After analyzing the data, they saw two of the largest use cases were merchant funding with Square cashouts, as well as earned wage access through DailyPay. They realized that they were not interested in offering receive capabilities without also offering send.

A Layered Approach to Fraud Mitigation
As ABNB prepared to enable send capabilities, they focused on risk management and operational efficiency. With Alacriti’s help, ABNB conducted a pre-launch database scrub to identify high-risk members and address potential issues. They then adopted a layered fraud mitigation strategy consisting of biometrics, multi-factor authentication, and fraud scoring. Tucker reflected on the process, “By the time we launched, we knew we had done the work to ensure security and scalability.” 

From customizing API connections to advising on fraud mitigation strategies, Alacriti worked closely with ABNB to ensure the RTP network implementation was as smooth as possible. Alacriti’s pre-built integrations with ABNB’s core online banking and fraud mitigation systems meant that ABNB could focus on tailoring the service to their members without burdening their internal fraud, risk, and operations teams. 

“As part of my role at Alacriti, I frequently get questions about the instant payments journey—what are the key decisions, and how do financial institutions navigate factors like fraud, risk, and monetization?” said Mark Majeske, SVP, Faster Payments at Alacriti. “What we’ve seen is that instant payments aren’t just a feature—they’re becoming a necessity for financial institutions that want to remain competitive, serve their members better, and create operational efficiencies.”

A Quiet Success
ABNB rolled out receive and send on the RTP network with a tight steering team of five key individuals, with minimal disruption. As they flipped the switch on the RTP network, the result was surprising: a non-event. Transactions flowed seamlessly from day one, and within the first 90 days, ABNB received over $1 million across 3,000 transactions.

Looking Ahead
As ABNB looks to expand use cases for instant payments, Tucker credits The Clearing House and Alacriti for their roles in making the journey possible. “This isn’t just about technology—it’s about partnership and vision,” she said.