At the NACHA Faster Payments 2017 conference earlier this month, more details of The Clearing House (TCH) Real Time Payments (RTP) initiative emerged:

• it clears AND settles from end-to-end within seconds, unlike CHIPS and Fedwire which clear fast and then settle later in the day.
• RTP will run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
• settlement takes place on an individual transaction basis
• corporates will get immediate confirmation and simplified reconciliation
• banks will no longer need to perform reconciliation in a batch mode
• RTP will have complete visibility, end-to-end PLUS the originator of the transaction will know when the other participant receives the money
• immediate confirmation of settlement will be provided to the buyer
• RTP will also move information - invoice numbers, and information that’s required in terms of being able to post that transaction - through secure banking channels, and corporates will even be able to send a message back through that same secure channel to request additional information in real-time if they don’t understand what the payment is for
• once a transaction is settled, there is no ability for payer to come back and revote or recall the payment.

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CTMfile take: The Clearing House Real Time Payments initiative will be a revolution that will impact all other payment systems in the USA, just like Faster Payments in the UK.