The Clearing House’s Real Time Payments network captured the instant payments market over the Federal Reserve’s FedNow rail in 2024.

In fact, the network processed 99.6% of instant payments last year, Jim Colassano, senior vice president of business product management at The Clearing House (TCH), told Bank Automation News.

“New financial institutions join each week and the number of use cases continues to expand,” Colassano said. “As more banks and credit unions join the network, we are seeing even greater transaction volume growth as more accounts become accessible on the network.”

TCH’s Real Time Payments network (RTP), launched in November 2017, completed 500 million transactions in 18 months. The network recorded its highest single-day payment volume of $1.44 billion on Jan. 31, according to a Feb. 3 release from TCH.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve’s FedNow payment rail, launched in July 2023, reported on Jan. 31 that 915,263 payments had been settled on the network during the fourth quarter, up 2094% year over year.

TCH had 857 financial institutions on its network as of Jan. 30 compared with more than 1,200 on the FedNow network.

Instant payments drivers

Community banks and regional banks are the major payment facilitators on the RTP network, Colassano said.

“Two of the top five largest senders of instant payments on the RTP network are community banks,” Colassano said. “Over 90% of RTP network participants are small financial institutions (under $10 billion in assets).”

While TCH did not disclose the names of the top senders on its payments network, some of the FIs on the RTP network include: $3.6 trillion JPMorgan, $190 billion KeyBank and $3.6 billion BCB Community Bank.

Key use cases for the RTP network, Colassano said, include:

• Account transfers;
• Payroll;
• Earned wage access; and
• Gig economy payments; and
• SMB payments.

SMB demand

Growing demand from business clients for instant payment services from their banks is driving payment volume on the RTP and FedNow networks, according to banking solution provider Q2’s Jan. 30 report “January 2025 Market Analysis: The State of Commercial Banking.”

In 2024, TCH saw wide adoption of its RTP network for business payments, which helped SMBs manage their cash flow better, Colassano said. “Title insurance and real estate payments, B2B and supply chain payments, and insurance disbursements” payments increased.

“We listened to the RTP community, where many were asking for a higher transaction limit,” Colassano said, adding that TCH will increase the RTP limit from $1 million to $10 million on Feb. 9 to support larger B2B payments.

TCH in 2025 is working on its ability to send a request for payment (RFP), which can be used for invoicing, monthly billing or requesting money from another individual, Colassano said. “We continue to expect to see RFPs grow in 2025 as more financial institutions enable the capability.”

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