Financial institutions are looking to The Clearing House’s real-time payments network to grow deposits and offer instant gratification in their payments offerings.  

“It’s definitely been an interesting and accelerating year for the growth of the real-time payments (RTP) network,” Elena Whisler, chief client officer at The Clearing House, told Bank Automation News. 

The Clearing House added more than 200 institutions to its RTP network in 2023, boosting the total to about 475 FIs, Whisler said.

Additionally, transaction volume has been ticking up, according to The Clearing House website, increasing 11% sequentially in the third quarter to 64 million transactions worth $34 billion.  

Financial institutions on the network include Citibank, Fifth Third Bank, HSBC, Huntington, KeyBank, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo, according to the website.  

Recent adoption

The latest institution to launch RTP is the $168 billion Navy Federal Credit Union, which went live with the network on Dec. 5, according to a Navy Federal Credit Union release. 

“We’re on a journey to transform all of our core payments,” Pete Amstutz, senior vice president of savings and membership at Navy Federal, told BAN. RTP “takes that to the next level and allows members to manage their finances in real time.” 

The credit union looked to tech provider Alacrati to connect to The Clearing House’s rails, Chief Technology Officer Sovan Shatpathy told BAN. Using a third-party provider allowed the credit union to implement the technology fast and get to market in less than 12 months, he said.  

Since launching the technology, Navy Federal has reported the following:  

• The rail is completing about 16,000 transactions per day; and 
• On the first day, the credit union received $2.7 million in real-time payments deposits. 

The $7.2 billion Veridian Credit Union also selected Alacrati to enable real-time payments. Other tech providers that enable RTP include FIS, Fiserv and Jack Henry.  

RTP 2024 growth

The Clearing House plans to double down on scaling efforts in 2024, Whisler told BAN. 

It is focused on making more impact with RTP by reaching new geographic markets and breaking into new industries, including small business segments and health care payments, Whisler said. 

For the next year, “reach and volume” are the focus, she said. 

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