On April 10, 2026, the Federal Reserve proposed amending Regulation J to let FedNow participants route transfers through intermediary banks, including non-U.S. correspondent banks, extending real-time settlement to the U.S. leg of cross-border payments for the first time. On August 10, Stripe, Visa, Wise and a coalition of banking and fintech trade groups formally backed the proposal, though the Fed has not set a timeline for a final rule. The change only fixes settlement speed on the domestic leg. It does nothing for authorization, where a cross-border card transaction still clears at lower approval odds than one processed locally, which is the problem orchestration and local-market infrastructure actually address.