Prepare for payments transformation. In November 2017, The Clearing House (TCH) and 25 partnering banks launched the first new core payments structure in the United States in more than 40 years. The new system permits real-time payment clearing, marking a major change for treasury operations that have been using the one- to two-day Automated Clearing House (ACH).

Qualifying payments are domestic, interbank electronic transactions. Their payment messages are transferred, and funds are available to the payee, in real time —literally within seconds—on a 24×7 basis. The new system, dubbed RTP for "real time payments," was designed and built through the collaborative efforts of TCH and its partnering financial institutions. RTP meets the objectives of the Federal Reserve Faster Payments Task Force, which has been tasked by the Fed to identify and assess alternative approaches for implementing safe, ubiquitous, and faster payment capabilities in the United States.

The new system follows late on the heels of the Faster Payments Scheme Limited (FPSL) launched by the United Kingdom in 2008. FPSL moves mobile, Internet, telephone, and standing-order payments quickly and securely, in nearly real time, 24 hours a day. Seventeen banks and building societies are participants in FPSL, with more than 400 financial institutions now offering the service to over 52 million account holders.