Representatives of the 24 banks that collectively own The Clearing House Payments Co., the oldest banking and payments association in the United States, will meet in New York next week to discuss faster payments, according to a representative of one of the member banks.

The meeting next week, which is not being publicized, will draw senior executives from banks such as Bank of America, PNC and Wells Fargo & Co.

Times have certainly changed since The Clearing House, which is also known as TCH, first met in New York in the fall of 1853 to discuss settling checks between customers of its member banks.

TCH intends to build a fast or real-time payments system, but it is not clear how its system will relate to the Federal Reserve’s faster payments initiative, or the proposal of NACHA, which operates the Automated Clearing House. (TCH indicated the two proposal, comprising different use cases, may be complementary.)

TCH initially announced its plans to propose a faster payments network last October. A spokesman for TCH characterized next week’s meeting to Bank Innovation as just one of a number of meetings as the faster payment initiative, described as a “massive undertaking,” plows ahead. But the attendee list, which includes some big names, and given bankers’ notoriously tight schedules — paired with the Fed’s recent whitepaper on faster payments and the start of a second comment period — suggests that the initiative could be picking up steam.

This is another sign that faster payments is growing in urgency at the big banks. Just a year ago, the prospect of faster payments in the U.S. seemed far off, and perhaps the best hope, NACHA’s same-day settlement proposal, seemed far off and just a bit disappointing compared to what was happening internationally. But pressure from disruptive forces such as companies employing blockchain technology and services habituating millennials to real-time (or close-to-real-time) value exchange, such as Venmo, have helped push the banks forward on this issue, one bank representative told us.

The institutions that collectively own The Clearing House are:

• Bank of America
• Bank of the West
• Barclays
• BB&T
• Bank of New York Mellon
• Capital One
• Citibank
• Comerica
• Deutsche Bank
• Fifth Third
• HSBC
• JPMorgan Chase
• Key Bank
• M&T Bank
• PNC Bank
• RBS
• Santander
• State Street Corp.
• SunTrust Banks
• TD Bank
• UBS
• Union Bank
• US Bank
• Wells Fargo

Additionally, a board seat is currently shared by City National Bank and First Citizens Bank. The rotating position of Chairman of the Supervisory Board for The Clearing House is currently held by Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan.

Learn more about faster payments at Bank Innovation 2015 in Seattle on March 2 and 3. Request your invitation here.