BNY Makes $10M Instant Payment; Largest in US History

The Clearing House said it transmitted the largest instant payment in United States history.

The $10 million payment was made by BNY and transmitted over The Clearing House’s RTP® network, according to a Monday (Feb. 10) press release. It came one day after the RTP’s transaction limit increased from $1 million to $10 million, a change TCH first announced last year.

The Clearing House (TCH) described the transaction in the release as an “inter-company liquidity management payment,” from global transfer agent Computershare — BNY’s transfer agent — to another bank account.

“This landmark payment from Computershare highlights the growing demand for higher value instant payments, providing a seamless alternative to traditional wire transfers and checks while improving liquidity management in today’s fast-paced economy,” TCH said in the release.

More than 285,000 businesses use the RTP each month to send and receive payments, per the release.

“We determined it was time to make the leap from $1 million to $10 million, as opposed to doing this in marginal, incremental steps,” Jim Colassano, TCH’s senior vice president for RTP product development, told PYMNTS in December.

Transactions of $1 million to $5 million (or more) can be commonplace, especially for mid-sized and larger enterprises when paying one another — and the $1 million limit was a roadblock to more volume crossing the network, he said.

The announcement came one week after TCH reached another milestone, with the RTP network surpassing 1 billion payments. The network passed the 500 million payment mark in July 2023.

Meanwhile, the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Real-Time Readiness: Bridging Gaps in FIs’ Instant Payments Adoption” found that 93% of financial institutions (FIs) that offer instant payments witnessed at least some positive impact on customer retention.

“However, while big banks are going all-in, with 92% of large FIs connected to an instant payments network, small FIs are dragging their feet — and they may be underestimating just how much their hesitation could cost them,” PYMNTS wrote Feb. 7.

The research also found that businesses were more likely to be offered instant payment options than individual customers, with 80% of banks allowing enterprise clients to send such payments, compared to 58% that offered the same option to consumers.

“FIs that prioritize enterprise customers risk alienating regular banking customers, who may start looking elsewhere for faster payment options,” PYMNTS wrote.