FIS and The Clearing House to debut US real-time payments system
Anthony Jabbour, FIS
FIS and The Clearing House (TCH) are preparing to launch a pilot for a “first-of-its-kind” real-time payments system in the US.
The pilot will initially focus on the bill payment use case, using FIS technology and operating via the TCH real-time payments platform.
Already under development, the pilot will go live in the first quarter of 2017, and bring payments that clear and settle in real-time to the pilot financial institutions. Once live, the system will be available to all financial institutions across the country.
Anthony Jabbour, chief operating officer, banking & payments, FIS, says: “This is a critical initiative, designed to transform the payments landscape in the US.”
Russ Waterhouse, executive vice-president, product development and strategy at TCH, adds: “True, real-time payments that clear and settle within seconds are right around the corner. Not only is FIS helping us bring this system to market quickly, they are also going to play a key role in helping us achieve ubiquity in the US.”
FIS says it has “successfully demonstrated” real-time payment processing capabilities for financial institutions in other countries with its real-time payment rails.
FIS and TCH are two of 19 organisations selected to the Federal Reserve’s Faster Payments Task Force Steering Committee, which is evaluating approaches for implementing real-time payments in the US.
Behind the scenes
This kind of partnership with FIS is not unique for TCH.
Recently, JHA Payment Solutions, a division of Jack Henry & Associates, teamed up with TCH as it seeks to bring immediate payments to the US. ACI Worldwide also made a similar announcement recently.
TCH also signed a letter of intent with VocaLink, the UK-based international payment systems provider, to help build and deliver core elements of TCH’s new real-time payment system for the US.
