The Clearing House, VocaLink to Deliver Faster Payments in U.S. (Oct. 26, 2015)
Faster payments programs are live in 18 countries and 12 more are researching and building systems—the U.S. among the dozen. The Clearing House (TCH) announced today it will be building and delivering core elements of its real-time payment system for the U.S. through an agreement with VocaLink. TCH, a U.S. banking and payments company owned by 24 banks, has signed a letter of intent with the U.K.-based international payment systems provider, which is the backbone of the U.K. Faster Payments system.
TCH says the new system will be compliant with the CFPB’s Consumer Protection Principles for faster payment systems, which focus on consumer protections. The core customer benefits, according to the company, include:
- Ubiquity—the system will be accessible by all financial institutions in the U.S., regardless of size or charter type;
- Seamless integration—the system will enable customers to use their current accounts to make and receive payments using their financial institutions’ existing online or mobile banking platforms;
- Commercial payments—supports complex business payment services, including electronic invoicing, rich remittance data and confirmation of delivery;
- Customer control—every payment is initiated directly by the sender, providing complete control and transparency to customers;
- Certainty—senders and recipients will receive immediate notification of payment and risk of returned payments will be eliminated because sending financial institutions immediately verify good funds;
- Built to last—extensibility in the system’s architecture will enable it to be flexible so it can adapt to changing market needs in the future; and
- Conforms to international standard—meets ISO 20022 standards for real-time payments and immediately allows FIs and customers to use the same formats, technology and processes across borders, which will eventually support international payments through interoperable domestic payment systems.
“Our real-time payment system will enable customers across the country to make secure, convenient payments instantaneously,” said TCH CEO Jim Aramanda. “This real-time payment system will enable business to process invoices, governments to send disaster relief funds and individuals to pay contractors all within an instant.”
VocaLink designed, built and manages the real-time technology behind the U.K. Faster Payments Service on behalf of the Faster Payments Scheme. Since the service was launched in 2008, more than 4 billion payments have been securely processed and the real-time infrastructure has provided a platform for further innovation, driving the development and proliferation of a wider range of services, including mobile payments.
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