We live in a rapid-paced world in which we can send a message across the world in seconds or have almost anything delivered to our door within 24 hours. However, our ability to send and receive payments has greatly lagged the digital revolution, as anyone who’s been forced to wait a day (or more) for the funds in a deposited check to be available or received a late fee for a utility bill mailed a week ahead of time.

For millions of American households this is more than just a mere inconvenience--the delay in accessing bank deposits can force them to resort to check-cashing centers, payday lenders, or other costly financial intermediaries to manage their expenses.

The good news for consumers and businesses alike is that the unseen but important infrastructure that enables us to send payments to one another is now set to deliver the real-time capabilities that we take for granted elsewhere.


The arrival of real-time payments capabilities in the U.S. brings our financial system up to date with the rest of the world, where such payments are increasingly the norm; the United Kingdom, Singapore, Poland, Mexico, Australia, and over 25 other countries have systems that clear and settle payments immediately.

Until now, our inability to do likewise owes to the fact that our payments infrastructure is more than 40 years old, built long before the advent of the Internet or smart phones. Card networks and fin-tech companies have worked to fill in the gap, but neither erases the need for a core payments infrastructure that truly operates in real time.

Today, these real-time payments capabilities are being delivered through the RTP network built by The Clearing House, a financial market utility, which has run bank payments systems for the U.S. since before the Civil War. Launched in late 2017, the RTP network connects to over 50% of all U.S. bank accounts today and is on pace to reach the vast majority of Americans by the end of next year.