The RTP Network, the instant-payments organization operated by The Clearing House, crossed a milestone by processing $1 billion in a single day for the first time on June 28. RTP, which is owned by 22 large global banks, also set quarterly records for transaction volume and value, handling 82 million transactions and totaling $55 billion. Payment volume grew 7%, while overall payment value jumped 30% in Q2.
This success followed numerous records set by the RTP Network in Q1, handling a then-record 76 million transactions valued at $42 billion.
The Clearing House didn’t announce the billion-dollar milestone until ten days after it happened because the organization wanted to determine the factors contributing to reaching this mark. Ultimately, the organization determined there was a myriad of elements involved.
“The increase in transaction value is due to broad adoption of the RTP network across a number of use cases, including account-to-account transfers, title insurance and mortgage closing payments, gig economy payouts, earned wage access, and more,” Margaret Weichert, Chief Product Officer at The Clearing House, said in a press release. “Banks and credit unions that have joined the RTP network are seeing how instant payments can grow deposits, while meeting member and customer expectations for instant payment availability, 24/7.”
Facing the Competition
The progress for RTP follows a year of competition with the Federal Reserve’s rival payments system, FedNow. A survey from earlier this year found that 61% of financial institutions have implemented RTP or are in the process of doing so.
One area of success has been the RTP Network’s efforts to onboard smaller financial institutions. Roughly 90% of the financial institutions on its system have assets of less than $10 billion. At the same time, RTP now serves 225,000 unique businesses monthly, up from 105,000 a year ago. While businesses account for 80% of RTP transactions, 95% of those payments are received by consumers, according to TCH.
The network also reports a significant increase in consumer usage, with more than five million unique consumers sending instant payments every month, a figure that has doubled over the past year. RTP credits this growth in consumer usage to the widespread adoption of mobile wallets.