"Their own competitor" is a commercial service called RTP.[1] This does bank to bank push transfers (unlike ACH, you cannot debit others) in near real time. Costs banks $0.045 per transfer. There's also a system which allows sending documents along with a Request for Payment (usually a bill), and that process adds an extra $0.11.

[1] https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp