SWIFT provides instant payments in the US

Bank-owned financial messaging provider SWIFT will provide US institutions with a gateway to The Clearing House's real-time payments (RTP) platform. As instant payments become more ubiquitous in the US, SWIFT will provide an interface to manage the requirements of sending and receiving domestic instant payment transactions on behalf of customers, said a statement.

The Clearing House (TCH) is building a new clearing and settlement system to support domestic instant payments in the US, allowing consumers and businesses to send and receive payments in real-time and directly from their accounts at financial institutions. It will also include data and non-payment messages that financial institutions can use to build digital commerce solutions.

SWIFT's solution for the US market will provide banks with the opportunity to leverage a single platform, Alliance Messaging Hub (AMH) for both SWIFT high-value payments and low-value TCH real-time payments.

AMH is an orchestration layer that includes a gateway to the TCH RTP network, as well as other gateways and API's which allow financial institutions to connect to other non-SWIFT networks.

Financial institutions can leverage AMH to support instant payments, simplifying adoption to our customers. The solution will be commercially available by early 2018.

Ignacio Blanco, director, Strategic Relationships at SWIFT, said: "SWIFT is working together with communities worldwide to support the global shift towards real-time payments, and we are pleased to be at the forefront as the US market evolves. The Clearing House is making great strides in accelerating the speed of transactions, and we are committed to playing our part in helping the financial community to operate as efficiently as possible."

Steve Ledford, SVP Product and Strategy at The Clearing House, added: "Given its reach and expertise in payments, SWIFT is a great collaborator as we bring a wide-scale real-time payments system to the US market. Achieving our vision of broad adoption of real-time payments will only be possible when the majority of US institutions are able to participate, and SWIFT will be instrumental in helping us meet this goal."

SWIFT's global instant payments strategy is burgeoning, the US announcement builds on SWIFT's earlier success in Australia and in Europe. In 2015, SWIFT was awarded the contract to deliver the messaging infrastructure to underpin Australia's new payments platform, NPPA, which is expected to go live later in 2017.

Earlier this year, SWIFT announced the launch of an instant payments messaging solution, first for the European market, and elsewhere. It will allow instant payments to be made over the SWIFT network and provide customers with a single gateway to connect seamlessly to multiple instant payments systems.

Amongst others, it will offer connectivity to the Eurosystem's TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) and will support the delivery of the future Eurosystem single gateway to TIPS, TARGET2 (T2) and TARGET2 for Securities (T2S) platforms, as laid out in the Eurosystem's Vision 2020.