Clearing House Adds FIS Tech to Real-Time Payments Project

In teaming with financial institution technology provider FIS, The Clearing House has gained one more piece in assembling its real-time payments system.

The Clearing House is bringing FIS into the fold to assure all of the facets work for banks, said Steve Ledford, Clearing House's senior vice president of product and strategy who is heading up the real-time payments initiative.

The Clearing House is one of the organizations developing a technology and network for real-time payments in the U.S. The Clearing House, an operator of the Automated Clearing House network, also completed a partnership this week with VocaLink to help establish the foundation for real-time payments, which VocaLink has established with the U.K.’s Faster Payments Service.

"This is a good illustration that there are a lot of pieces that need to come together to make real-time payments work," Ledford said. "But you need that core payments system, that central switch, that VocaLink is providing, as an important overall part and you also have to make sure financial institutions can take advantage of it."

In that role, FIS will provide the technology that allows banks to integrate a real-time payments system into their various applications from online banking to depositing platforms, Ledford said.

Both The Clearing House and FIS have been involved in the Federal Reserve's two-year effort to bring faster payment rails to the U.S. Their hope is that whatever system they can develop will become the underlying technology chosen by the Fed, or at least a key element of its strategy.

FIS is a global banking and payments technology provider and consulting firm, having developed real-time payment technologies through its PayNet network. In addition, FIS also has the potential to bring thousands of banks into any new network because of the relationships it has built, Ledford said.