Payment networks operator The Clearing House (TCH) is working with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to boost the efficiency of its client onboarding system.

“It’s really important for us to onboard a new participant … as quickly as possible,” Elena Whisler, senior vice president for sales and relationship management at TCH, said at the recent AWS Financial Services Cloud Symposium in New York City.

“For AWS customers, the onboarding cycle is significantly reduced,” she said.

TCH handles “about half” of the commercial ACH processing in the U.S. through its EPN network, settling about $2 trillion daily across its four networks, Whisler said. TCH additionally operates clearing system network CHIPS; Image Exchange, which allows financial institutions to exchange check images; and the Real Time Payment (RTP) network.

“Our goal is really to provide a safe, secure and seamless way for financial institutions to move money in the United States,” she said.

When it comes to payment systems, there are “new technologies, new interfaces, new ways of communicating,” Whisler said. In addition to working with banks and other financial institutions, TCH partners with technology providers and fintechs, she noted.

TCH is also looking to streamline cross-border payments by connecting its real-time domestic payment system with the European EBA Clearing’s real-time network, Whisler said.

TCH has observed several trends among its clients:

1. Financial institutions are changing the way they use TCH networks. “There’s really an evolving way of not only how you work with The Clearing House but how you connect to The Clearing House,” Whisler said. TCH communicates with payments that come in and is looking for additional value-added services to provide its customers, she added.
2. Real-time payment demand continues to rise. The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it an increase in online purchasing and real-time payments, a pattern that has continued.”That really means businesses are starting to go digital, and we’re evolving and going a little bit faster than we were before the pandemic ,” Whisler said.
3. While use of checks has declined overall, the average value of checks has gone up by $1,000. This is due to the fact that fewer checks are person-to-person (P2P) or person-to-business (P2B) payments, and more are business-to-business (B2B) payments, Whisler said.”We’re solving part of the problem with checks and moving towards digital, but it’s not the complete solution,” she said.

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