It’s a familiar story. You check your bank account on Friday evening, expecting your paycheck to be there. But it’s not – the money you earned won’t show up until Monday. Or even later, when it’s a holiday. Meanwhile, your rent is due, your utility bill is auto-drafting, and your weekend groceries can’t wait.

This isn’t a glitch. It’s a feature of a payment system that is still stuck in “banker’s hours” that only works for banks – not small businesses.

🧁The Real-World Cost of Operating on Banker’s, Not Baker’s, Hours

The term “banker’s hours” once referred to the 9-to-5, Monday-through-Friday schedule that bankers kept. But in today’s economy, most people don’t work those hours, and they certainly don’t live by them. Yet the infrastructure that moves money in America still does.

These delays have real costs. Hardworking families pay late fees because their money isn’t moving fast enough into their accounts. Small businesses miss out on opportunities because they can’t access the funds they’ve already earned.

Take H.F. Scruggs in Little Rock, Arkansas, for example. They are a family-owned business that delivers quality baking supplies to businesses in Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma. With 15 employees and a lot of area to cover, banker’s hours don’t apply to their work hours since they’re on baker’s hours. Their three AM delivery times and transactions are well before the bank tellers open, and continued payment delays can have consequences.

“Payment delays and excessive fees don’t just make it harder for us to deliver; they disrupt the entire supply chain and place added strain on the restaurants and the communities they serve,” said David Scruggs, president of H.F. Scruggs.

And the people most affected are often those with the least financial cushion: low-income workers, gig workers, and hourly employees who depend on each dollar arriving on time. “Streamlining digital payments will support American businesses at every level,” added Scruggs.

⌚A 24/7 World Deserves a 24/7 System

Just like the employees at H.F. Scruggs work all hours of the day, we live in an always-on economy. You can order dinner, hail a ride, or file your taxes at midnight. So why should you wait days to get paid?

Other countries have figured this out. From India to the U.K., real-time payments are the standard, not the exception. Money moves within seconds, regardless of the day or hour. These systems didn’t just happen. They were built with public purpose and policy support.

In the U.S., we have the technology to do the same. But progress has been stalled by outdated rules, limited access to the federal payments system, and a lack of competition among the institutions that move our money.

🛠️The Fix Starts with Policy

Modernizing our payment system isn’t just a tech upgrade. It’s a matter of national competitiveness. We need:

• Open access to the core payment infrastructure so more institutions can offer faster, fairer services.
  
• A modern payments charter that allows responsible companies to participate without navigating outdated rules and antiquated systems.
  
• Public investment in a real-time system that works 24/7, not just during banker’s hours.

These policy proposals have received broad bipartisan support with past and recent administrations having looked into these, and other, critical policy changes. ASAP is advocating for these changes because no one should lose sleep or money over a system that refuses to keep up.

⚡Let’s Move at the Speed of Life

Banker’s hours may have worked in another era, but in today’s world, they hold people back. It’s time to build a system that works for everyone, every hour of the day.

Let’s stop letting the clock decide who gets paid and when. Let’s make payments as fast and fair as the people who depend on them.