SWIFT has announced its plan to provide US-based institutions with a gateway to The Clearing House ’s (TCH) real-time Payments (RTP) platform. With this platform, the technology provider plans to create an environment where domestic, immediate transactions and their requirements can be managed for clients. This includes both incoming and outgoing payment transactions.
The platform is designed to receive and send out payments directly from clients’ accounts at financial bodies. It further includes information and messages that are not payment related, and financial entities may utilize these towards improvements and innovations in the digital commerce field.
A third platform comes into the mix in the form of the Alliance Messaging Hub (AMH), which offers American banks the possibility of managing high value transactions with SWIFT, and low value transactions with the TCH. AMH also offers an API system that enables financial entities to connect with payment networks other than SWIFT and TCH. This system will become available in early 2018.
Ignacio Blanco, Director of Strategic relationships at Swift, commented that the company is working with other firms and entities around the world in order to advance the globalization of instant payments, and is celebrating its progress with the United States: “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, named SWIFT an expert in payment solutions and a great partner: “Achieving our vision of broad adoption of real-time payments will only be possible when the majority of U.S. institutions are able to participate, and SWIFT will be instrumental in helping us meet this goal.”
