The twelve rail facts, side by side, for up to four rails at once. Each cell is that rail's own answer in its own words, with its trust tier and a link to the record. A product built on a rail can take a column too: its cells are its own rules, and where it holds none the cell links the rail's answer without claiming it applies unchanged.
Snapshot 2026-09-20, built 2026-09-26, commit 019924ac64ee0aa0742b8f02a04488a83633385d. 30 of 50 rails have a profile; the other 20 have none and say so. 6 products can be set beside them.
When is a payment final, and can it be undone?
When does an ACH payment become final, and can it be reversed?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)Settlement between the two banks is final on the settlement date, at the settlement time the Reserve Banks publish.
Applies to ACH credit and debit entries cleared through the Federal Reserve Banks as ACH operator (FedACH), between US depository institutions, in USD
Confidence medium
When does a Pix become final, and can it be reversed?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)A Pix settles in seconds and, once settled, the credit order is irrevocable and unconditional.
Applies to a Pix credit transfer in Brazilian reais between transactional accounts held at Pix participants, settled in the SPI or in a participant's own systems
Confidence high
When does an RTP payment become final, and can it be reversed?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)An RTP credit transfer is final and irrevocable once the receiving participant accepts it and the RTP System records settlement, and the sending participant has no right to cancel or amend it.
Applies to RTP credit transfers sent through the RTP network operated by The Clearing House, between a sender account and a receiver account both located in the United States
Confidence high
When does a SEPA Instant Credit Transfer become final, and can it be reversed?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)A SEPA Instant Credit Transfer is final within seconds.
Applies to SEPA Instant Credit Transfers in euro between payment accounts of an Originator and a Beneficiary located in the countries listed in the EPC List of SEPA Scheme Countries, executed under the EPC SCT…
Confidence high
How and when does the money settle between institutions?
How and when does money actually settle between the banks?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)ACH is deferred net settlement across accounts at the Federal Reserve.
The record marks part of this answer unconfirmed in its own words.
Applies to ACH credit and debit entries cleared and settled through the Federal Reserve Banks as ACH operator (FedACH), between US depository institutions holding or using a settlement account at a Reserve Bank
Confidence medium
How does a Pix actually settle, and in whose money?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)A Pix between two participants settles gross, one payment at a time, in central bank money, across Conta PI accounts that direct participants hold at the Banco Central do Brasil.
Applies to settlement of a Pix credit order, whether in the SPI between Conta PI accounts or in a participant's own systems
Confidence high
How does settlement work, when does it happen, and in what money?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)RTP is prefunded and settles payment by payment, in US dollars, at the moment the receiving participant accepts.
The record marks part of this answer unconfirmed in its own words.
Applies to RTP credit transfers and the funding and settlement arrangements of RTP participants and funding agents in the United States
Confidence high
How does settlement work, when does it happen, and in what money?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)SCT Inst turns the usual order around. No beneficiary PSP will hand a customer money it might not get, so the cover is arranged first: passing the transaction to its CSM is the originator PSP's authority for that CSM to…
Applies to the inter-PSP leg of a SEPA Instant Credit Transfer, between the originator PSP and the beneficiary PSP, through whichever CSMs those Participants use
Confidence high
When does the rail run, and what are its cut-offs?
When is the rail open, and what are the cutoffs?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)ACH runs on banking days, not around the clock.
Applies to ACH files sent to and received from the Federal Reserve Banks as ACH operator (FedACH); a bank's own customer cutoffs and the hours of the other operator, EPN, are outside this record
Confidence medium
When is Pix open, and what runs on a different clock?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)Pix is open all the time. The SPI settles credit orders 24 hours a day on every day of the year, the DICT key directory answers on the same terms, and a direct participant must stay connected and funded on those terms…
Applies to availability of the SPI, the DICT and Pix participants, and the time windows that govern a Pix, a key operation and a fraud hold
Confidence high
When is the rail open, and what clock do its deadlines run on?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)The RTP network is open all the time: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every week of the year, including weekends and bank holidays.
Applies to the RTP network operated by The Clearing House, for all participants and all message types
Confidence high
When is the rail open, and what clock do its deadlines run on?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)SCT Inst never closes and has no cut-off.
Applies to the timing of SEPA Instant Credit Transfers, of the Rejects that stop them, and of the Recalls and Requests for Recall that follow them
Confidence high
What limits apply to a payment, and who sets them?
What amount limits apply, and who sets them?
Corroborated, not from operator's textOne network limit is published: a Same Day ACH entry may not exceed $1,000,000, and that ceiling becomes $10,000,000 on 2027-09-17.
Applies to ACH entries originated in the United States in USD, with the same day figures applying to entries flagged for Same Day ACH settlement
Confidence medium
What limits apply to a Pix, and who sets them?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)The SPI itself has no maximum payment amount.
Applies to value limits faced by a payer sending a Pix, set by the payer's transactional account provider under BCB rules, and the ceilings the BCB sets directly
Confidence high
What limits apply to an RTP payment, and who sets them?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)The network limit is $10,000,000 per payment, raised from $1,000,000 effective 2025-02-09.
The record marks part of this answer unconfirmed in its own words.
Applies to each individual RTP credit transfer, and the aggregate sending capacity of an RTP participant
Confidence high
What limits apply to a SEPA Instant Credit Transfer, and who sets them?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)There is no maximum amount at scheme level any more.
Applies to the amount, the character count and the count of exception messages on a SEPA Instant Credit Transfer under the EPC SCT Inst scheme
Confidence high
How does a payment come back, and on what deadline?
How does an entry come back, and by when?
Corroborated, not from operator's textThe receiving bank sends the entry back as a return entry carrying a reason code, and it settles in the opposite direction like any other ACH traffic.
Applies to return entries sent by a receiving bank on ACH debits and credits cleared through the Federal Reserve Banks, for US consumer and non consumer accounts
Confidence medium
Can a settled Pix be returned, by whom and by when?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)Yes, and only the receiving side can do it.
Applies to an ordinary devolucao of a settled Pix under Chapter XI Section I of the Regulamento Pix, including the withdrawal and change variants, and not the special mechanism
Confidence high
Is there a return, and what can stop a payment before it settles?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)RTP has no return. There is no message by which a receiving participant sends a settled payment back the way an ACH RDFI returns an entry, because RTP is credit push only and a settled payment is final.
Applies to RTP credit transfers, both before settlement (reject, cancellation) and after settlement (no return path)
Confidence high
Is there a return, and what can stop a payment before it settles?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)There is no Return in this scheme. A Reject is the only thing that stops a payment, and it lands in the same seconds as the payment itself.
Applies to SEPA Instant Credit Transfers stopped by a Reject or a negative confirmation at any point in the chain, and the absence of any post-payment Return in the scheme
Confidence high
Can the sender ask for a payment back, and who decides?
Can a sent payment be recalled, and who decides?
Corroborated, not from operator's textThere is no cancel button once a file has gone to the operator.
Applies to ACH entries already sent to an ACH operator by a US originating bank, on consumer and non consumer accounts
Confidence medium
Can the payer's side pull a Pix back, and what does asking actually do?
Draft, uncheckedThere is no recall message on Pix. The catalog has no camt.056 and nothing equivalent, and a settled credit order is irrevocable.
Applies to a request by the payer's PSP to get a settled Pix back, through the Mecanismo Especial de Devolucao and the DICT, as distinct from an ordinary return started by the receiving user
Confidence high
Can a sent payment be recalled, and who decides?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)No party can recall an RTP payment. The sending participant cannot cancel or amend it once it has gone to the system, and the only cancellation in the rules is the system's own time-out.
The record marks part of this answer unconfirmed in its own words.
Applies to a settled RTP credit transfer that the sending side wants back, and a payment message that has not yet been accepted
Confidence high
Can a sent payment be recalled, and who decides?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)A completed SEPA Instant Credit Transfer can be asked back two ways, and both are requests.
Applies to a SEPA Instant Credit Transfer whose funds have been made available and that the sending side wants back, through either the SCT Inst Recall or the Request for Recall by the Originator procedure
Confidence high
Can the payer get the money back, and on what right?
Can the payer get the money back, and on what grounds?
Corroborated, not from operator's textA consumer whose account was debited without authorisation has a real right to be made whole, and it comes from law rather than from the ACH rules: report the error within 60 days of the statement and the bank must…
Applies to ACH debits to US accounts, with the Regulation E lines applying only to accounts held by a natural person primarily for personal, family or household purposes
Confidence medium
Does anyone have a right to be refunded, and how does the money get back?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)Pix gives one unconditional refund right and it is narrow: where the payer's PSP sent a faulty Pix Automatico payment, it must make its own client whole from its own funds, whether or not it ever recovers a cent.
Applies to the stage at which money actually moves back to a payer under the Mecanismo Especial de Devolucao, and the one case where a participant must pay its own client regardless
Confidence high
Does anyone have a right to be refunded, and on what grounds?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)RTP gives no general refund right. Sending a payment you regret buys you a request the other bank can decline.
Applies to settled RTP credit transfers, and in particular payments made in response to a Request for Payment
Confidence high
Does anyone have a right to be refunded, and on what grounds?
Draft, uncheckedThe SCT Inst rulebook gives nobody a refund right, and this scheme does not even have the Return that SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) has.
Applies to a payer whose SEPA Instant Credit Transfer was unauthorised, badly executed or sent to the wrong payee, and a payer who simply wants a completed instant transfer back
Confidence high
Who bears a loss when something goes wrong?
Who bears the loss when something goes wrong?
Corroborated, not from operator's textLoss on ACH lands in three different places depending on who the account belongs to.
Applies to losses on ACH entries cleared through the Federal Reserve Banks, allocated between consumers, originators, originating and receiving banks, and the Reserve Banks as operator
Confidence medium
Who bears the loss when a Pix goes wrong?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)The Regulamento allocates loss between participants and says very little about the end user.
Applies to allocation of loss and of duty between Pix participants for a payment that was fraudulent, erroneous or wrongly authorized, and the hooks by which the BCB enforces it
Confidence high
Who bears the loss when a payment goes wrong?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)The rulebook mostly declines to answer. For a payment with no consumer leg, loss allocation is left to Article 4-A of the New York Uniform Commercial Code as modified by the rules, and TCH says plainly it will not be a…
Applies to RTP participants, and the allocation of loss on erroneous, unauthorized and misdirected RTP payments
Confidence high
Who bears the loss when a payment goes wrong?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)Two layers, as on SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT), plus one risk this scheme creates for itself.
Applies to losses on a SEPA Instant Credit Transfer, between two Participants under the rulebook and between a Participant and its own payment service user under payment services law
Confidence high
What does the law give a consumer here, beyond the rulebook?
What consumer protection law applies, and what does it require?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)The Electronic Fund Transfer Act and Regulation E apply to an ACH entry that debits or credits a consumer account, which means an account held mainly for personal, family or household purposes.
Applies to ACH debits and credits to accounts held by a natural person in the United States primarily for personal, family or household purposes, including prepaid accounts and government benefit accounts
Confidence medium
What protects an end user on Pix, and where does the rulebook stop?
Draft, uncheckedPix is unusual among instant rails in building consumer protection into the payment rules rather than leaving it to statute.
Applies to protections available to an end user of Pix in Brazil, set by the Pix rules and by the BCB's general customer relationship rules, and the boundary where the rulebook hands off to law
Confidence medium
What consumer law applies, and what does it give a consumer that the rules do not?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)Where any part of an RTP payment is subject to the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, the EFTA and Regulation E govern first, the Operating Rules and New York law apply only so far as they are consistent, and Article 4-A is…
The record marks part of this answer unconfirmed in its own words.
Applies to RTP payments any part of which is subject to the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, which in practice means payments to or from a consumer asset account in the United States
Confidence medium
What consumer law applies, and what does it give a consumer that the rules do not?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)The rulebook binds banks to each other and gives a customer nothing directly.
Applies to a consumer payer or payee on a SEPA Instant Credit Transfer whose account is held in an EEA Member State, with the national transposition of the Payment Services Directive applying to it, and the…
Confidence high
What messages carry the payment and the answers to it?
What message format does the rail use, and what travels with a payment?
Corroborated, not from operator's textACH does not send messages, it sends files of fixed width records, 94 bytes to a line, grouped into batches.
Applies to ACH files exchanged between US depository institutions and the ACH operators, in the Nacha file format
Confidence medium
What messages carry a Pix, and what is not a message at all?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)Pix runs on ISO 20022 XML, but only for settlement.
Applies to the ISO 20022 messages carried by the SPI for Pix, and the boundary between them and the DICT REST interface
Confidence high
What messages exist on this rail, and what standard are they in?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)RTP runs on ISO 20022, through TCH's own usage rules called the RTP Technical Specifications.
Applies to all messages exchanged between RTP participants and the RTP System
Confidence medium
What messages exist on this rail, and what standard are they in?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)The rulebook names no ISO message. It defines ten datasets and a list of attributes and leaves the ISO 20022 XML mapping to two Implementation Guidelines it makes binding but does not contain.
Applies to the business messages of the SCT Inst scheme and the ISO 20022 standard they are expressed in, in both the customer to PSP space and the inter-PSP space
Confidence high
Who may take part, and in what role?
Who can take part, and in what role?
Corroborated, not from operator's textFive named roles carry every ACH payment: the Originator who instructs it, its bank the ODFI, an ACH Operator, the receiving bank or RDFI, and the Receiver.
Applies to participation in the US ACH Network, with the access conditions stated for the Federal Reserve Banks as ACH operator
Confidence medium
Who can be in Pix, and what does each kind of membership let you do?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)Membership is compulsory above a size threshold and open below it.
Applies to membership of the Pix arrangement and of the SPI and DICT infrastructures, and the obligations each form of membership carries
Confidence high
Who can be on this rail, in what roles, and who cannot?
Draft, uncheckedOnly a depository institution that has signed the RTP Participant Agreement and Indemnity is a participant.
Applies to institutions and non-bank senders using the RTP network in the United States
Confidence medium
Who can be on this rail, in what roles, and who cannot?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)The eligibility tests are the SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) tests almost word for word, but the participation duty is not.
Applies to adherence to the EPC SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme and the roles of the parties to a transaction made under it, and, where it sits in front of an SCT Inst payment, adherence to the EPC…
Confidence high
Where does a rule leave the decision to a bank or a person?
Where do the rules hand the outcome to a human or a bank?
Corroborated, not from operator's textACH looks automatic and is not. At a dozen points the text says a bank may, or judges, or must take a risk based approach, and the payment's outcome then depends on a person or a policy rather than on the rail.
Applies to points in the ACH flow where a published provision leaves the outcome to a bank's judgement, a Reserve Bank's discretion or a person's choice
Confidence medium
Where does Pix hand the outcome to a human or a bank's judgment?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)Settlement on Pix is mechanical and almost everything around it is not.
The record marks part of this answer unconfirmed in its own words.
Applies to points in a Pix payment, return, hold or fraud recovery where the rules require a judgment rather than prescribing an outcome
Confidence medium
Where does the rail stop and a human decide?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)The payment itself leaves almost nothing to judgment: it is released, accepted and settled in seconds against tests a machine applies.
The record marks part of this answer unconfirmed in its own words.
Applies to the points in an RTP payment or exception where a rule leaves the outcome to a participant, to TCH, or to a customer
Confidence medium
Where does the rail stop and a human decide?
Corroborated (authoritative primary)The payment itself leaves no room for judgement: five seconds, no cut-off, and every step is instant or automatic.
Applies to points before and after a SEPA Instant Credit Transfer where the rulebook or the applicable law leaves the outcome to a Participant or to a payment service user rather than prescribing it
Confidence medium
The short answer is the first sentence of the record's own statement, cut at 220 characters and never rewritten. Nothing on this page paraphrases, averages or normalises an answer, because two rails that sound alike here may not be alike at all. Open the record for the detail lines, each of which cites its own section.
The trust tier is the same PS-2 badge the rail pages carry, computed from the record's own sources and dates. A draft was written by an agent and checked by nobody. A corroborated record was checked against named public sources, and the class in brackets says how strong. Nothing in Orca is verified yet.
Not held means Orca has no record, and it is a gap in Orca rather than a statement about the rail. A rail with no profile at all says so in every one of the twelve cells; it is never left blank.
Defers to another rail is printed only where the record itself says so: where the record's own statement or caveat names another rail's record for this same facet, by uid, and that uid is in its related list. Both halves come from the record, so nothing here is read out of the prose by guesswork. The other rail's text is never copied into the cell; the cell links to it.
Points at is weaker and is not a deferral: the record answers the question itself and also links another rail's answer to the same question. It is shown so a reader can find the neighbouring rail, not because the answer is over there.
Not like for like appears above a row when the records that answer it do not talk about time on one scale, for example one in banking days and one in seconds. The two bands are told apart by the time words the records themselves use across their statement and their detail lines, which is the same test the verification queue uses on a deadline. It is a warning to read each cell, never a conversion, and it does not claim the two rails would differ if both were measured the same way.
A product column is a product built on a rail (Pix Automatico, PayTo), taken from the product view the build derives from records the corpus already holds; nothing in it is written by hand, and it has no status of its own. Where the product holds rules of its own for a question, the cell lists them by name, each with its own trust tier and a link to it on the product page. Where it holds none, the cell says the facet is inherited, links the rail's own answer by name and does not copy it, and does not assert that it applies to the product unchanged. The header above the rows gives the product's trust split; a product whose every record is a draft is marked a lead, not an answer. A product is added to the address by its uid, as in ?rails=pix,pix:txn.pix-automatico.
Scope is each record's own applies_to. The scopes are rarely the same: a card network, a wallet, a scheme and a clearing house are different things, and a row that lines them up does not make them comparable. Read the scope before reading the answer across.
Reference material, not legal or compliance advice. The same twelve questions are available to an agent through the rail_profile tool and in corpus.json under facts. The data files and their licence.