1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Payments Modernization Act of 2023 . 2. Findings and purposes (a) Findings Congress finds the following: (1) Families in the United States spend billions of dollars in overdraft fees in part because they are waiting for checks to clear over a weekend or holiday. (2) The inefficient payment system in the United States drives families, especially those living paycheck to paycheck, to use high-cost financial services to access funds more rapidly. (3) A faster payment system would provide people of the United States immediate access to funds and relief for those who overdraw their accounts because their deposits are not available in real-time, helping families potentially save billions of dollars each year. (4) The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has created FedNow, an instant payment infrastructure that allows participants to send and receive funds in real time. (5) Financial services providers have a duty to make payments available as soon as it is reasonably possible. (b) Purposes The purposes of this Act are— (1) to ensure that the United States has a safe, fast, efficient, equitable, and fair payment system; and (2) to clarify that financial institutions shall prioritize efficient payments, except in cases in which fraudulent activity is suspected. 3. Definition In this Act, the term real-time has the meaning given the term in section 602 of the Expedited Funds Availability Act ( 12 U.S.C. 4001 ), as amended by section 4(a) of this Act. 4. Requirement that funds deposited be available for withdrawal in real-time (a) Definitions (1) In general Section 602 of the Expedited Funds Availability Act ( 12 U.S.C. 4001 ) is amended— (A) by redesignating paragraphs (20) through (25) as paragraphs (21) through (26), respectively; and (B) by inserting after paragraph (19) the following: (20) Real-time The term real-time — (A) means any time