PYMNTS Intelligence: Marking the Milestones and Impact of the RTP® Network

The RTP® network does not only offer secure payments that settle in seconds. It also offers payment messaging capability, digital commerce services and a host of other features that have driven banks and businesses to join in droves. 

Five years after its introduction, the RTP network now services 62% of demand deposit accounts in the United States and close to 90% of financial institutions (FIs) have the technical capability to join the network. This month’s PYMNTS Intelligence explores the growth of the RTP network over the past half-decade and details the most significant milestones along the way including the impact of the pandemic.

A promising beginning and strong early growth

The RTP network’s 2017 debut was the first new core payments infrastructure in the U.S. in more than 40 years, and the system was immediately adopted by TCH’s owner banks. Over the next several years, dozens of new banks joined the network, including BankNewport, Dow Chemical Employees Credit Union, Silicon Valley Bank, and Umpqua Bank. 

Smaller community banks also hopped on board thanks to the help of third-party payments providers. Payment company PayFi, for example, launched a payments platform that allowed smaller FIs to join the RTP network by outsourcing the integration to a third party. PayFi anticipated at the time that the RTP network would be near-ubiquitous by 2020. 

The year 2020 was certainly a banner year for the RTP network. The COVID-19 pandemic irrevocably heightened consumers’ expectations for instant payments and streamlined digital experiences. FIs flocked to the RTP network in droves to meet these demands. Chesapeake Bank, MUFG Union Banks and Bankers’ Bank were just some of the dozens of new entries, and TCH raised the transaction limit to $100,000 per transaction to ensure smoother business-to-business transactions for companies largely relegated to remote work.

Recent expansion of the RTP network’s functionalities

Cross-border payments are a particularly interesting use case for expanded functionalities, with TCH working with EBA CLEARING and SWIFT to develop instant international payments in a joint initiative. The pilot, dubbed Immediate Cross-Border Payments (IXB), was launched in October and introduced in phases to accommodate 25 FIs on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Security improvements are also a current focal point. TCH recently launched a new tokenization system to reduce the proliferation of individual consumers’ bank account information, for example. New features such as this aims to ensure a long-lasting future for the RTP network and instant payments as a whole across the U.S.