Real-Time Authorization in 2026: Credit Unions' Path to 24/7 Member Service Without a Core Replacement

Guest Editorial by Carlos Netto, Co-Founder and CEO, Matera

As credit unions enter 2026, they face a defining choice: reclaim their position as innovation leaders or continue playing defense against fintech disruptors. The good news is that credit unions possess member trust and community relationships that fintechs cannot replicate. The challenge is delivering the digital experience members now expect while preserving the personalized service that defines them. Meeting this challenge starts with addressing the most visible gap in member experience — system availability.

Members expect banking to work like everything else in their digital lives. Instant, available around the clock, never offline. However, legacy cores were designed for batch processing during business hours. Maintenance windows still take systems down overnight and on weekends. That worked fine when branches were the primary channel and money moved Monday through Friday. Today it creates friction every time a member tries to send money on a Saturday evening or wants to use instant payment rails at midnight.

A Solution Without Disruption

The solution exists in decoupling the authorization function from the core. A real-time transaction layer can replicate select account balances and authorize transactions whether the core is up or down. The core continues handling compliance, reporting, and fee calculations — all the complex tasks it does well. The real-time layer handles speed and availability. Credit unions get continuous service without core dependency. Members get the instant access they expect.

Overcoming Implementation Barriers

This authorization technology exists today and is proven at scale. The real challenge is mindset rather than technology.

Credit unions often assume modernization requires ripping out and replacing their entire core system. That assumption creates paralysis because the risks and costs feel insurmountable. Once leadership understands they can add real-time capabilities through infrastructure enhancement rather than replacement, the conversation shifts entirely. Credit unions can start small with specific use cases like instant payments or member-facing mobile features, prove the value, and expand from there.

Modern real-time authorization engines are designed to work alongside cores through standard APIs and events.

From Strategy to Execution

Real-time authorization is no longer an experimental concept or a research project. It is a proven software pattern that is already operating at national scale in markets that made the shift away from batch-first banking years ago. The architecture is straightforward: a cloud-native, real-time authorization and posting layer that mirrors the core’s critical balances and rules, stays continuously available, and synchronizes back to the system of record. The core remains the book of record. The real-time layer becomes the always-on control plane.

This is not a services project or a multi-year core transformation. It is a software deployment. Credit unions can start with a narrow scope — instant payments, mobile transfers, or card-like authorization controls — and expand coverage as confidence grows. Each use case moves more member interactions into a 24/7, always-available experience without increasing operational risk or disrupting existing core processes.

The technology is ready. The architecture is proven. The only remaining decision for credit union leadership is whether 24/7 service becomes a deliberate strategy — or remains an accidental limitation of yesterday’s systems.

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Carlos Netto is the CEO and co-founder of Matera and a fintech entrepreneur focused on modernizing core banking and instant payments infrastructure. Under his leadership, Matera has become a leading provider of banking technology for the digital currency era. From stablecoins to instant payments and QR code solutions, Matera enables financial institutions to modernize without replacing their core. Today, two of the top three global banks and three of the top 10 U.S. banks rely on Matera.