FIS, The Clearing House Partner To Connect Small, Mid-Sized Banks, CUs To RTP

FIS has partnered with The Clearing House (TCH), the operator of the nation’s payments system infrastructure to provide instant settlements to small to mid-sized banks and credit unions (CUs) and their customers.

The Jacksonville, Florida-based financial software company provides a managed platform service for banks to quickly and cost-effectively connect to the RTP network, the real-time payments system from The Clearing House.

Financial institutions can take advantage of the network without the need to hire additional staff or make significant upfront capital investments, FIS said in an announcement on Wednesday (Sept. 23).

First Bank of St. Louis, one of the largest privately-owned banks in the U.S., and Nano Banc, a relationship-based bank headquartered in Irvine, California, are among the first FIS clients to use the service.

“First Bank prides ourselves on being on the forefront of technologies that can have a positive impact in the lives and businesses of our customers,” said Ajay Kothuri, assistant vice president, in a statement. “What attracted us to the FIS real-time payments managed service was the ability to accelerate our connection to the RTP network while reducing costs and complexity. As our volume of real-time payments grows, we can easily scale to meet the growing demand.”

Mark Troncale, Nano Banc president, said the bank wants to be ahead of the curve in terms of delivering instant payments to customers. “The real-time payments managed service from FIS allowed us to connect to the RTP network much faster than before,” he said in a statement.

Earlier this month, Anatomy of a Consumer Payment, a PYMNTS report in collaboration with FIS, analyzed how the pandemic has affected the spread of emerging payment technologies, such as contactless payments and mobile wallets. It examines what adoption means for merchants and payment providers.

“Merchants must constantly innovate their payment experiences to keep up with how consumers expect to be able to shop and pay, regardless of their customers’ preferred channels,” the report said. “Delivering those experiences in a contactless manner has gained importance since the pandemic’s start.”

Also, in September, THC – which settles more than $2 trillion daily – reported that banks holding 70 percent of the nation’s checking accounts now have access to real-time payments. Instant payments now reach 56 percent of all U.S. account holders connected to its RTP.