RTP Network by The Clearing House: 24/7 Real-Time Payments

The RTP (Real-Time Payments) Network by The Clearing House is a modern payment infrastructure that enables instant, 24/7 fund transfers between banks. Launched in 2017, it was “the first new core payments infrastructure introduced in the U.S. since ACH more than 40 years ago”. Today the RTP network allows individuals and businesses to send and receive money instantly at any time of day or night. 

Payments over RTP clear and settle immediately (in seconds), with settlement that is final and irrevocable. This always-on system currently connects hundreds of banks and credit unions – reaching roughly 71% of U.S. demand deposit accounts – enabling real-time transfers any day of the year.

What is the RTP Network?

The RTP network is a wholesale interbank payment system owned and operated by The Clearing House – a payments association owned by 24 large U.S. commercial banks (including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, etc.).

It uses a credit-push model: the sender’s bank instructs funds to be transferred, and the receiver’s bank posts them immediately. Unlike batch-based systems (ACH) or traditional wire transfers, each RTP payment settles individually and immediately. 

As The Clearing House notes, RTP transactions “clear and settle individually in real time with immediate finality”. Once an RTP payment is authorized, it cannot be revoked or recalled by the sender – giving the recipient certainty that the funds are final.

The network is open to all federally-insured U.S. depository institutions (banks and credit unions), regardless of size. Any participating institution can both send and receive RTP payments, enabling new products across all customer segments (B2B, B2C, P2P, etc.). 

Major U.S. banks and institutions are already live on RTP – for example, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank, PNC, U.S. Bank, BNY Mellon, Fifth Third, Huntington National Bank, and many others support RTP payments. In practice this means that funds can move instantly between customers of nearly every large bank, as well as thousands of community banks and credit unions.

• 24/7 Availability: One of RTP’s defining features is that it operates continuously – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Customers can initiate a transfer at midnight, on weekends, or holidays and the funds are delivered to the receiver within seconds. The Clearing House explicitly lists “24/7 network availability” as a core attribute of RTP.
  
  For example, businesses may delay payments until late on a Friday, then release them at 11:59 PM to maximize time in account, trusting the payment will clear immediately. This always-on service is a stark contrast to legacy systems: for instance, ACH runs in batches during business hours, and Fedwire traditionally did not operate overnight (though Fedwire improved its hours in 2020). With RTP, there are no imposed windows – the network is always accepting and settling transactions.
  
• Immediate Funds and Finality: Because RTP operates in real time, recipients see the money in their accounts within seconds. The rules require that the receiving bank “make funds available immediately” upon receipt. In practice this means once the sender’s bank sends the payment, the recipient’s account is credited almost instantly.
  
  Moreover, sending banks cannot cancel an RTP payment after submission – settlement is “final and irrevocable”. This provides certainty to payees and eliminates the risk of returns (other than by exception). In short, RTP payments are both instant and irrevocable, which is a powerful assurance for businesses and consumers alike.
  
• Key Features and Messaging: Beyond speed and finality, the RTP network offers rich data and messaging capabilities. Each payment can carry additional remittance information, enabling features like Request for Payment (bill or invoice presentment) and structured payment references. The Clearing House emphasizes “extensibility” as a benefit, noting that RTP’s flexible messaging supports advanced services.
  
  For example, a biller can send a digital payment request to a customer’s bank, and the customer can approve and pay on the spot. The network also offers payment status messaging – senders can query the status of a payment in flight, providing real-time visibility for all parties.

In summary, the RTP network is an always-on, interbank clearing and settlement system that modernizes payments. It parallels the ACH network (which originally handled direct deposit and debits) and the Fedwire system (for large-value wires), but with real-time, 24/7 settlement. Importantly, it was built by the industry (The Clearing House and its bank owners) specifically to meet growing demand for instant payments in the U.S.

Key Features and 24/7 Instant Transfers

• Always-On Network: RTP operates 24/7/365, meaning transactions can be sent or received at any time, day or night. There are no batch cutoffs or weekend delays.
  
• Immediate Availability of Funds: As soon as an RTP payment is sent, the receiving bank must post the funds to the recipient’s account within seconds. This enables true instant transfers; recipients can use or withdraw the money immediately.
  
• Final, Irrevocable Settlement: RTP payments are credit-push only, and once authorized and sent, they cannot be revoked. The sending bank can’t pull the funds back after sending, giving payees certainty. Funds settle in real time between banks, eliminating float or reversals.
  
• Broad Participation: All federally insured U.S. banks and credit unions can become RTP participants. The system was designed to be inclusive of institutions of every size. (Those not directly connected can use third-party service providers or Bankers’ Banks to gain access.)
  
• High Value Limits: The RTP network supports very large transactions. In Feb 2025, The Clearing House raised the per-transaction cap from $1 million to $10 million. This ten-fold increase enables high-value payments (for example, large supplier invoices or escrow transfers) to move instantly on RTP.
  
• Rich Data and Messaging: Beyond the core payment instruction, RTP supports additional remittance data and optional Request-for-Payment messages. Organizations can attach invoice numbers, notes, or QR-coded requests to RTP messages, helping automate reconciliation and billing.
  
• Cost and Access: The Clearing House has made connectivity straightforward: institutions pay a flat, usage-based fee (no monthly minimums) to join RTP. There is a single pricing structure for all participants, and the network is highly regulated to ensure safety and uniform access.

Together, these features make RTP a powerful infrastructure for real-time, round-the-clock payments. Funds in RTP are immediately available, so payers and payees do not face delays. The network’s continuous operation means that even on holidays or weekends, money can move instantly across bank accounts.

Participating Banks and Adoption

The RTP network has seen rapid adoption by U.S. banks and credit unions. As of mid-2025, over 950 financial institutions are live on RTP, sending and receiving payments each day. These participants include the nation’s largest banks as well as a wide array of regional banks, community banks, and credit unions. 

In practice, all of the major U.S. banks are on RTP: for example, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank, PNC, U.S. Bank, BNY Mellon, Fifth Third, Huntington, Truist (BB&T/SunTrust), and many others support RTP transactions. Smaller institutions also join via technology providers or correspondent networks.

The Clearing House reports that RTP now “reaches 71% of U.S. demand deposit accounts (DDAs)”. This means that over two-thirds of U.S. checking and savings accounts are held at institutions that can send or receive RTP payments. 

When factoring in technical connectivity through third-party providers, the network’s technical reach extends even further – The Clearing House estimates access to about 90% of U.S. DDAs. In practical terms, most Americans and businesses who bank have at least one avenue for instant payments.

Adoption metrics confirm this growth. In Q2 2025, the RTP network processed roughly 107 million transactions worth about $481 billion. On an average day in May 2025 it handled over 1.18 million payments totaling around $5 billion. These volumes are orders of magnitude higher than in the early years of RTP. 

According to The Clearing House, the network is now averaging over a million payments per day, and business is growing steadily. By comparison, the Federal Reserve’s FedNow system – launched in mid-2023 – has processed far fewer transactions (roughly 14.5 thousand per day in 2025) because it is newer and less widely connected.

RTP is used by a large number of organizations. The Clearing House notes that over 285,000 businesses rely on RTP each month for payments. Similarly, industry sources report that about 250,000 businesses originate RTP payments per quarter. On the consumer side, roughly 5 million consumers make payments via RTP each quarter. 

In practice this often happens through apps like Zelle and money-transfer services, which leverage RTP under the hood (see below). These usage figures illustrate that both businesses and consumers have rapidly embraced real-time transfers where available.

In short, the RTP network has achieved critical mass: almost all large banks are connected, hundreds of smaller institutions have joined, and it processes well over a million transactions per day. Adoption continues to climb as more banks go live each month (often via fintech or core banking partners) to satisfy customer demand for instant payment capabilities.

Transaction Limits and High-Value Payments

One of the recent milestones for RTP has been the dramatic increase in per-transaction limits. When RTP launched in 2017, payments were capped at just $25,000 each. Over time this limit was raised in steps – for example to $100,000, then to $1 million around early 2023.

Most recently, on February 9, 2025 The Clearing House raised the cap from $1 million to $10 million per transaction. This ten-fold increase was driven by demand for using RTP for larger business transactions.

The effect of the higher limit was immediate. In February and March 2025, the network saw a surge in high-value transfers. High-value payments (those above the old $1M cap) more than tripled in dollar volume after the new limit took effect. 

The milestone was underscored by an actual $10 million RTP transfer executed shortly thereafter: BNY Mellon announced that it had sent a $10 million payment via RTP – the largest instant payment in U.S. history to date. This payment, sent by Computershare, demonstrated that companies can now fully replace overnight wire transfers and checks for very large payments, benefiting from instant finality and 24/7 availability.

Today, then, the RTP network supports multi-million-dollar transactions, making it viable for corporate treasury use cases. Companies can use RTP for supplier invoices, payroll disbursements, intercompany transfers, or any high-value need. As BNY executives noted, the $10M cap “unlocked[s] new opportunities for businesses to move money faster, optimize cash flow, and streamline operations”.

In practical terms, businesses that once had to wait for same-day ACH or schedule wire transfers on a business day can now send large sums at any hour. In fact, one industry report estimates that more than 285,000 businesses are using RTP each month to send and receive payments – a figure that will likely grow as awareness of the higher limit spreads.

For completeness, it’s worth noting that RTP’s limit is far higher than FedNow’s current limit. The FedNow Service originally launched with a $500,000 cap (per transaction) and plans to raise it to $1 million (as of mid-2025). By comparison, RTP’s $10 million ceiling accommodates much larger payments.

Thus, banks often promote having both capabilities: use RTP for very large payments and FedNow for smaller instant needs. But on its own, RTP now covers almost any high-value payment scenario that requires immediate settlement.

Use Cases and Benefits

The RTP network is designed to support virtually all types of payments. Because it connects consumers, businesses, and government entities, its use cases span a wide spectrum:

• Person-to-Person (P2P) Transfers: Many mobile and online wallet apps use RTP rails. For example, the bank-owned Zelle network leverages RTP to clear and settle bank-to-bank payments instantly. Similarly, digital wallets like Venmo use RTP in the background; when a user “cashes out” to their bank account, RTP delivers the funds immediately.
  
• Account-to-Account Moves: Individuals often transfer funds between their own accounts at different banks (or transfer to investment accounts). With RTP, these account-to-account transfers happen in real time, which is useful for quickly consolidating funds or responding to sudden cash needs.
  
• Bill Payments and Billing: Households and businesses can pay bills instantly by pushing a payment to a vendor or service provider. The RTP request-for-payment (RfP) feature lets a biller send a digital invoice to a payer’s bank, who can pay it right away. For example, a utility company could email a payment link, and customers’ banks send the RTP payment immediately upon authorization.
  
• Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Disbursements: Companies use RTP to send funds to individuals quickly. A common scenario is earned wage access: employers pay wages on demand (instead of waiting for payday), giving employees instant access to earned income. Gig workers, for example, can receive pay immediately after completing a shift.
  
• Business-to-Business (B2B) Payments: RTP is especially valuable for commercial payments. Examples include supplier/vendor payments, invoicing, and treasury transfers. Because RTP is always available, a supplier can be paid the moment goods ship, improving cash flow. The expanded $10M limit now allows RTP to handle large vendor invoices and corporate transactions. According to industry surveys, businesses originate hundreds of thousands of RTP transactions per quarter.
  
• Government Disbursements: Government agencies can use RTP for fast disbursement of funds, such as tax refunds, benefit payments, or emergency aid. Real-time availability of funds benefits recipients in need of immediate liquidity.
  
• E-commerce and Merchant Disbursements: Online platforms can pay out to merchants or sellers in real time. For instance, a marketplace might instantly settle with a vendor once a sale occurs. Similarly, insurance companies may use RTP to pay claims instantly.
  
• Real Estate and Escrow: Large payments required at real estate closings or insurance settlements can go through RTP. Instead of waiting days, the buyer (or escrow agent) can push the transfer at closing time, with the seller’s bank crediting the funds immediately.

In essence, any scenario requiring fast, reliable payment is a candidate for RTP. The benefits to users and the economy are significant. Businesses gain improved cash flow and lower settlement risk. Consumers enjoy speed and certainty – they don’t have to wait days for a deposit.

For example, a company treasurer can wait to send payroll until 11:59 PM, maximizing use of cash, knowing workers will get paid by midnight. Another advantage is transparency: RTP provides immediate payment confirmations and statuses, reducing disputes.

The Clearing House emphasizes these cash-flow benefits: immediate payments give customers “more control over cash flow”. In practice, real-time funds often mean avoiding overdrafts or funding delays.

Moreover, because RTP is highly regulated and newer than legacy systems, it incorporates modern fraud controls. Early data indicate that fraud on RTP is extremely low – on the order of a few hundredths of a percent. This suggests the network has robust security monitoring in place.

RTP vs. Competitors: FedNow, Zelle and Others

While RTP by The Clearing House is a leading real-time payment network in the U.S., it is not the only instant-payments option. Most notably, the Federal Reserve launched its own instant payment system, FedNow, in July 2023. FedNow provides a public-sector alternative rail for 24/7 payments. 

As of 2025, FedNow is growing but still smaller: roughly 25% of U.S. bank accounts are reachable via FedNow, compared to ~70% for RTP. Many banks now adopt a dual-rail strategy, connecting to both RTP and FedNow.

In fact, industry surveys report that 58% of U.S. banks enabling instant payments are live on both networks. The rationale is resilience and ubiquity: if one network has an outage or if a counterparty is only on the other rail, banks can route the payment accordingly.

Another “competitor” from the consumer perspective is Zelle (owned by banks through Early Warning Services) and similar P2P services. Zelle itself is a payments service, not an ACH or Fedwire replacement, but it relies heavily on RTP rails to move money instantly between banks.

Similarly, Venmo and PayPal are building instant bank-transfer features on rails like RTP or Visa Direct. The key point is that many payment apps piggyback on RTP’s infrastructure. So while a consumer might choose Zelle or Venmo, the underlying push into the bank account is often an RTP transaction.

In comparing RTP to FedNow, some differences stand out. RTP has a longer track record (in live use since 2017) and higher daily volumes. For example, by 2025 RTP was clearing on the order of 1.2 million payments per day, whereas FedNow was only around 14.5 thousand per day. RTP’s $10 million limit also greatly exceeds FedNow’s planned $1 million cap. 

However, FedNow has broader participation among smaller banks so far, and in principle a customer wouldn’t care which rail is used – they just expect funds fast. 24/7 technical interoperability is being pursued via messaging and service providers (so that a FedNow-originated payment can still reach an RTP-enabled bank, etc.), but currently banks typically connect separately to each network.

Other faster-payment alternatives exist too, such as Visa Direct and Mastercard Send (which push to debit cards) and same-day ACH (with limited windows). However, RTP is unique in being a bank-owned, real-time ACH alternative with wide adoption and modern messaging. The future seems to favor using multiple rails: real-time payment experts recommend that institutions be ready to handle both RTP and FedNow to meet all customer needs.

In summary, while FedNow, Zelle, and other networks exist, the RTP network by The Clearing House remains one of the most widely available and robust real-time payment systems in the U.S. Its early start and high transaction limits give it a key role in the instant-payments landscape.

FAQs

Q: What exactly is the RTP Network by The Clearing House? 

A: The RTP (Real-Time Payments) network is an interbank payment system built by The Clearing House (a consortium of major U.S. banks) that enables real-time, 24/7 fund transfers between any connected banks. It launched in 2017 and lets participating banks send immediate credit-push payments with final settlement. The Clearing House notes that RTP was “the first new core payments infrastructure introduced in the U.S. since ACH more than 40 years ago”.

Q: Which banks and institutions use RTP?

A: Any federally insured U.S. bank or credit union can join RTP. In practice, all of the largest American banks are on RTP (Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank, PNC, U.S. Bank, etc.), along with many regional banks and credit unions. Smaller banks often connect via service providers. Overall, over 950 financial institutions currently participate on the RTP network, giving it access to roughly 71% of U.S. checking accounts.

Q: What is the transaction limit on RTP? 

A: As of early 2025, the maximum value of a single RTP payment is $10,000,000 (ten million dollars). This limit was raised from $1 million in Feb 2025. Previously, RTP had much lower caps (for example, $25,000 at launch in 2017). The ten-million-dollar limit enables high-value corporate transactions to use RTP.

Q: Is the RTP network always available? 

A: Yes. The RTP network is designed for continuous operation. It is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, year-round, including weekends and holidays. Customers of participating banks can send or receive RTP payments at any time, and the payments will process immediately.

Q: How fast are RTP payments?

A: RTP payments are essentially instantaneous. Funds arrive within seconds of initiation. By rule, receiving banks must make the funds available immediately upon receiving the transaction. Users get real-time confirmation that the payment has settled. Unlike traditional ACH (which can take 1–3 days) or wire transfers (which may be delayed by bank hours), RTP completes the transfer in seconds.

Q: How does RTP compare to FedNow?

A: Both RTP and FedNow are real-time, round-the-clock payment networks, but they differ in origin and current scale. FedNow (by the Federal Reserve) launched in July 2023 and now covers about 25% of U.S. bank accounts, whereas RTP (by The Clearing House) has around 70% coverage.

RTP predates FedNow by several years and, as a result, has higher daily volume (over a million payments per day vs. tens of thousands for FedNow). RTP also supports a higher per-payment limit ($10M vs. $1M for FedNow). In practice, many banks connect to both networks so they can send an instant payment on whichever network will reach the recipient.

From a user standpoint, either network can deliver real-time funds; the system or bank will choose the appropriate rail behind the scenes.

Q: How does RTP relate to services like Zelle or Venmo?

A: Services like Zelle and Venmo enable person-to-person transfers for consumers, but they rely on payment rails behind the scenes. Zelle transactions between two bank accounts typically clear via the RTP network. Venmo (owned by PayPal) uses RTP to instantly transfer money out of its internal wallet into a user’s bank account. In other words, even though Zelle and Venmo appear as branded apps, the actual movement of funds often happens over the RTP infrastructure (or similar instant rails).

Conclusion

The Clearing House’s RTP Network has revolutionized payments in the U.S. by providing a fully 24/7 real-time payment platform. Since its launch in 2017, RTP has grown from a novel idea into a cornerstone of modern banking: it connects almost all major banks, supports hundreds of millions of transactions per quarter, and enables instant settlement around the clock.

Recent milestones – such as expanding the transaction limit to $10 million and achieving nationwide account coverage – have further cemented its role. 

For businesses, this means faster cash flow and new opportunities for payment innovation; for consumers, it means faster transfers and new payment conveniences. While new systems like FedNow and various fintech rails add to the landscape, RTP by The Clearing House remains a leading, proven solution for U.S. instant payments.

As adoption continues to rise and more use cases emerge, RTP is poised to handle the bulk of instant transfers in the U.S., delivering truly always-on payment services for everyone.