Two potentially important events occurred that may change the pace of a real time payments solution in the U.S. As reported in Finextra, The Clearinghouse signed with VocaLink to build a real time payments capability. The Clearinghouse is a private funds transfer company with member banks that include Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, BB&T, Capital One, PNC, U.S. Bank and other U.S. financial institutions. VocaLink was responsible for building the UK’s faster payment platform, among other accomplishments:
The Clearing House says the ISO 20022 standard real-time payment system will be designed to address gaps in transaction processing and will enable consumers and businesses to securely send and receive immediate payments directly from their accounts at financial institutions.
On the heels of that announcement, a merger between ClearXchange and Early Warning is in the works:
Separately, the US bank consortium behind the ClearXchange network are to form a combination with bank-backed risk and authentication utility Early Warning to enable consumers to send money securely and in real-time.
As part of the transaction, US Bank and PNC are expected to join Bank of America, BB&T, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo as owners of Early Warning
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With common owners and similar goals of facilitating payments in real time, it will be interesting to see if there is a co-mingling the two platforms or if they will operate separately as two distinct products; ClearXchange focusing on domestic payments and The Clearinghouse serving will more of a wholesale and international business.
Overview by Sarah Grotta, Director Debit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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