Instant Payments Shield Businesses From Vendor Disruptions

A shift in public-sector disbursements is underway. Beginning Sept. 30, all federal agencies must replace paper-based payments with digital disbursements, including real-time payments, direct deposit, prepaid cards and digital wallets. The move stems from a March executive order — Modernizing Payments to and From America’s Bank Account — and marks an evolution in how the United States government delivers money. At stake is more than convenience. The federal government processed $175 billion in paper checks in 2024, at a cost of nearly $700 million in system support alone. Fraud concerns are another key driver. Department of Treasury-issued checks are 16 times more likely to be lost, stolen or altered than digital payments. According to the 2025 AFP Payments Fraud Survey, 63% of organizations still experienced check fraud, despite a decline in usage. Replacing checks with digital and real-time rails — including automated clearing house (ACH), the RTP® network, the FedNow® Service and digital wallet disbursements — introduces a higher standard for speed, transparency and operational resilience. The shift also addresses consumer demand. Ninety percent of Americans now say they would prefer to receive disbursements instantly if given the choice. The data signals a generational shift, especially as Generation Z’s preference for mailed tax refunds dropped 10 percentage points in one year. Still, digital transformation at this scale requires more than policy. It demands system overhauls, user education and infrastructure investment. Financial institutions and government agencies must coordinate to ensure access for underbanked households and those without digital tools. Phasing out paper checks isn’t just a tech upgrade — it’s a redefinition of how the U.S. government meets its financial obligations. For the financial sector, this moment creates an opportunity to lead in building the rails, systems and relationships that will shape the future of disbursements.

The most important architecture decision your fintech or bank will make?  It’s not in a sprint ticket. It’s here. Core and ledger infrastructure is the silent engine behind your fintech product’s roadmap. And the moment you choose one path over another, you define your speed, flexibility, compliance overhead, and long-term margins.  But too often, that choice happens under pressure, with scattered opinions and jargon flying across a whiteboard. This guide is built to change that. What You’ll Get: In this practical, plainspoken field manual, Ingo‘s CPO Lisa McFarland walks you through the real-world decisions product leaders and bank execs make when faced with modern embedded banking demands.  Whether you’re launching a gig-pay platform or rethinking your BaaS architecture, this guide gives you the tools to think clearly, act confidently, and build smarter. You’ll get: A breakdown of the three dominant architecture models: Sidecar Cores, Middleware/BaaS Hubs, and Above-Core Platforms A plain-English glossary that de-jargons terms like omnibus, tokenization, and sub-ledger Real-world pros, pitfalls, and use cases for each architecture A builder’s decision tree to help you map out your go-forward plan Security + crypto readiness tips to stay audit-proof and future-proof Practical checklists for both banks and fintech builders A look inside Ingo’s own modular core approach Who It’s For: Fintech founders and product leads Bank CTOs, CPOs, and transformation leaders Embedded finance operators rethinking infrastructure Anyone facing an architecture decision with real stakes Why Download? This isn’t a fluff piece or vendor pitch. It’s 10+ pages of grounded, decision-critical insight from someone who’s been in the room for these calls.  Whether you’re in evaluation mode or deep in delivery, this guide will help you avoid costly dead-ends and pick the path that fits your goals. 

The speed of instant payments is a well-known attribute. For many large businesses, instant disbursements for nonrecurring, or ad hoc, payments are becoming a strategic tool, particularly for managing vendor relationships, especially when it comes to the gig economy. An April PYMNTS Intelligence report, “Instant Payments: A Strategic Tool for Vendor Relationships and Urgent Transactions,” a collaboration with Ingo Payments, offers compelling insights into this trend, based on a survey of 200 U.S. enterprises with annual revenues of $50 million or more. The report highlighted that many enterprise ad hoc payments need to be sent urgently, with 20% of all surveyed enterprises reporting this demand. The Need for Speed Businesses with an elevated need to make urgent payments are five times more likely to use instant payments to maintain strong vendor relationships, the report found. This motivation goes beyond mere operational efficiency; it’s deeply rooted in the need to avert disruptions, guarantee timely service or delivery, and strengthen and safeguard positive relationships. The primary driver for this urgency is often the need to pay for work completed or products/services delivered, but maintaining strong recipient relationships was cited as the most important reason by many high-urgency businesses. The report delved specifically into the gig economy, an area where 55% of large businesses need to disburse 30% or more of their ad hoc payments urgently. Gig workers rely on immediate payments to sustain their work and financial stability, making instant disbursements essential. The data showed that 97% of payments sent to gig workers were deemed urgent by senders. Gig Economy Prefers Instant Payments The report found that 90% of senders operating in the gig economy prefer instant payments, with 28% favoring push-to-debit transactions. For financial institutions, this signals a need to support instant payment capabilities like push-to-debit to help clients in the gig economy improve worker engagement and stability. This urgency translates directly into a willingness to pay for speed and certainty to cement client relationships, which in turn translates into a competitive advantage. On average, 71% of senders would pay a higher fee to send instantly if the payment was urgent, a figure that rises to 77% among those with more than 30% urgent payments in a typical year. Concerns about service refusal if payment isn’t immediate drive this willingness even higher, as 54% of senders with high payment urgency would pay even more if a vendor refused to deliver goods or services before payment was received. For certain critical transactions, the cost of a fee is less important than ensuring business continuity. Enterprise senders are not only willing to pay more but are also often shouldering the full cost of instant transactions. Businesses with high payment urgency needs paid the full fee for instant payments in 42% of their transactions in the last year, more than double the rate of low-urgency senders. The primary drivers cited for covering the full fee were vendor retention and operational efficiency. Businesses view the cost of instant payments as an investment in maintaining key relationships and ensuring smooth operations. Looking ahead, the widespread adoption of instant payments for ad hoc transactions is anticipated. The goal is even more prevalent among high-urgency businesses (more than 6 in 10) and across various industries. For gig economy senders specifically, an innovation planned by 2028 is the issuance of virtual cards to receivers, indicating the growing importance of streamlined disbursement methods. The willingness of these clients to pay for speed and reliability presents opportunities for financial institutions to offer valuable, differentiated instant payment solutions that go beyond basic transaction processing, supporting clients’ strategic goals and deepening relationships.