U.S. to launch analogue of Russian SBP

The U.S. Federal Reserve has confirmed that in July it will launch a long-awaited instant payment system (a counterpart to Russia's SBP), which some consider an alternative to digital currencies and central bank stablcoins, writes Cointelegraph.
The Instant Payments Network will make payments in seconds and support transactions between consumers, merchants and banks without the use of blockchain technology.

The Instant Payments Network will be controlled by the Federal Reserve, while the Clearing House RTP network, which also offers real-time payments, is managed by a consortium of major banks.
FedNow is scheduled to debut in July, and the Treasury Department and a number of financial institutions have been ready to use the network since its launch.
The Fed said it will "begin formally certifying participants" in the first week of April in preparation for the launch, a phase that will conclude with customer testing and certification, based on feedback from the FedNow pilot program, to prepare for real transactions to be sent through the system.
FedNow's announcement dates back to 2019. The network will provide real-time, round-the-clock gross settlement, routing commercial bank money from senders through a Fed credit account to the recipient, and has built-in features such as fraud risk management.

Some believe the FedNow service solves the problem that both Stablecoin and CBDC seek to solve, but it does not use blockchain technology, and the Fed itself is very skeptical of Stablecoin.
One of the major banking payment systems serving U.S. cryptocurrencies on the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) was shut down earlier this month after the collapse of Silvergate. And today, Signature Bank's SEN competitor SigNet is still operating, despite the bank's forced closure by regulators on March 13.