[finfrastrcuture]

The problem is fraud + disputes. Who's liable for people sending money to fraudsters? For letting fraudsters operate on the platform? See the fraud issues of Zelle, which is basically a free money moving service comparable to FedNow.

The service the networks provide is a way for all participants (banks, people, businesses, etc) to trust one another, as well as a healthy rules-based system to address disputes. Getting this working is not trivial.

[no_wizard]

>The problem is fraud + disputes

Banks pay fees today around this to the payment networks. The Fed could simply charge a tiny fee per transaction to the bank to cover this.

It would be much less expensive than Visa and Mastercard, since there is no service fee on top.

To clarify, I never said it be 100% free, but it would dramatically lower and standardize fees.

As far as trust goes, if you can't trust the central bank, we have bigger problems don't we?