U.S. Banks Officially Launch Their Realtime Payment System
The realtime payments system created by The Clearing House, owned by U.S. banks, is officially up and running as of yesterday, according to the banks.
BNY Mellon and U.S. Bank carried out the first transaction of the RTP (short for real-time payments) network at approximately 5 PM yesterday, moving $3.50 USD through two different accounts — for the same customer — at the two banks.
The transaction was processed in 3 seconds, a far cry from the three days or so it normally takes to process an ACH transfer.
The Clearing House’s additional owners (altogether, 25 banks own the company) are expected to quickly adopt the system, with Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, and SunTrust soon to follow BNY Mellon and U.S. Bank.
The system is expected to be “ubiquitous” among the banks by 2020, the banks said.
