Money & Finance › Payments & money movement › Instant payments: 24/7 bank transfers that settle in seconds
RTP network from The Clearing House (2017)
Nov 2017· Institution or agency
Fact, law or dataA rule, statute, definition or measured number.
The Clearing House's real-time payment system, launched November 2017: the first new US core payment rail in about four decades.
See it on the Money & Finance map →How it works
Owned by the big banks behind The Clearing House, RTP moves money between participating banks' customers in seconds, 24/7/365. Payments are 'credit push' (only the payer can send; no one can pull), final, and carry rich ISO 20022 data. Banks prefund a joint account at the New York Fed, and RTP settles from it. The per-payment limit rose to $10 million in February 2025. In 2024 RTP carried about 343 million payments worth $246 billion; banks pay about 4.5 cents each.
Why it matters
It brought 24/7 final payments to US banks for payroll, insurance claims, bill pay and supplier payments, ending the weekend wait.
Facts, rules and data
The Clearing House's operating rules and quarterly volume releases, and Federal Reserve documents on the joint settlement account at the New York Fed.
Debates and risks
How much consumer use it will get, since many banks still let customers receive but not send, and how much fraud instant, final payments will attract.
Connections (2)
▸RTP network from The Clearing House (2017) launched US Instant payments: 24/7 bank transfers that settle in secondsFact, law or data
The connection
Before RTP, US interbank payments settled only on business days, and most ACH transfers took a day or more. The Clearing House's banks built RTP so a payment could clear and settle in seconds, around the clock, with irrevocable finality and rich data. It set the template, credit push, ISO 20022 messages and prefunded settlement, that FedNow later followed.
When and why
Launched November 2017 by The Clearing House and its owner banks in New York; BNY Mellon and U.S. Bank exchanged the first payment.
How we know
The Clearing House's launch announcements and operating rules, and Federal Reserve research on US faster payments.
Debates and risks
Why US instant payments lagged the UK (2008) and others by about a decade; bank incentives and a fragmented banking system are both blamed.
▸FedNow: the Fed's instant payment service (2023) competes with RTP network from The Clearing House (2017)Fact, law or data
The connection
Both offer 24/7 final transfers for about 4.5 cents a payment with $10 million limits. RTP carries far more volume and has the largest banks; FedNow has more participants, many of them small. The two are not linked, so a payment reaches a bank only on a network it has joined; many large banks connect to both.
When and why
Nationwide since FedNow's 2023 launch; FedNow raised its limit to match RTP's $10 million in November 2025.
How we know
Each network's published pricing, limits and participant counts, and the public comment record on whether the Fed should build FedNow.
Debates and risks
Whether the Fed should compete with a private system at all, and whether the two networks will ever interconnect.