How the Clearing House is pushing international real-time payments

• Key insights: The Clearing House's RTP network is planning to support cross-border payments. 
• What's at stake: Real-time networks have focused primarily on domestic payments, while blockchain tech firms build international networks for instant settlement. 
• Forward look: The RTP rail will add support for cross-border payments in the coming months.

The Federal Reserve is looking at ways to allow its FedNow system to accept instant settlement for international payments, but it isn't alone in eyeing that service. Bank-owned The Clearing House, Visa and Mastercard, and digital-asset firms are all looking at providing international settlements that settle instantly.

For consumers, the change may not be very noticeable. Credit card payments, for instance, already seem to be instantaneous. But behind the scenes there is a complex, multiparty process that adds costs to every transaction. Cutting down on that complexity can take time and cost out of traditional processing steps, which can take up to three days. There are several options available to speed processing. While many banks support FedNow, banks lead the RTP network and thus have more control. 

While payment firms compete with each other, they also work with each other to ensure new technology can reach a wide audience. Banks, card companies, payments fintechs and others have to balance both their need for a competitive advantage against the need to have and provide as many options to their customers as possible. Thus the competition to build a real-time international payments network that has competitors both competing and cooperating.  

The Clearing House, which is owned by a consortium of U.S. banks and operates the core domestic payments infrastructure, operates the RTP (Real Time Payments) network. The service is domestically focused but looking at overseas activity.

"The RTP network has been advancing toward permitting international activity on the network, including one leg out and international on behalf of payments," Jim Colassano, senior vice president of RTP Business Product Management, told American Banker. One leg out, or OLO, payments refer to international transactions that include one party in the European Union. On behalf of, or OBO, payments refer to a third party that processes a transaction on the sender's behalf (such as a correspondent bank or payment company).   

At The Clearing House, the move toward supporting international RTP payments, which will begin later this year, builds on existing support for domestic "on behalf of" payments and indirect domestic send, or IDS, payments, Colassano said. IDS refers to wire transfers and other digital payments. 

The OBO framework supports payment flows that involve intermediaries such as nonbank payment providers, and the IDS framework supports domestic correspondent bank activity, according to Colassano. "Both of these are critical components to a cross border solution. On-behalf-of activity exists on the network today, with domestic-correspondent-bank activity to come in September 2026," he said.

RTP, which launched in 2017, six years ahead of FedNow, hopes to build on a base of real-time payments that covers more than 1,100 banks and processed $1.3 trillion in 2025. That was up 428% from 2024, partly driven by a boost in transaction limit from $1 million to $10 million in February. 

By comparison, FedNow, which launched in 2023, has about 1,700 member banks and grew particularly fast in 2025, processing more than $850 billion, up more than 2,100%, also partly driven by an increase in transaction limits. 

There are also other options beyond FedNow and RTP to support cross-border real-time payments. Real-time transfer services such as Mastercard Move and Visa Direct are building international rails for real-time payments. 

Digital-asset firms such as Ripple have used distributed ledgers – which normally support cryptocurrencies – to circumvent correspondent banks for years. Ripple has sold its model on the argument that the distributed ledger is faster than using correspondent banks, which add steps, time and fees to cross-border transactions. Cross-border payments are often given as a use for stablecoins, which are unlikely to be used for domestic transactions but could be used to reduce time and improve liquidity for international payments. 

"That's why stablecoins have gained traction in corridors where correspondent banking is broken or prohibitively expensive," Stuart Cook, a fintech industry investor and advisor, told American Banker, noting an African business buying $10 million in Chinese machinery can convert to the stablecoin USDC, transfer it on-chain, and the supplier can off ramp to local currency, bypassing a correspondent chain that might take three to seven business days to clear.

"I think what we might actually see is instant fiat rails like FedNow or RTP handle the on ramp and off ramp, so funding a stablecoin wallet or converting stablecoins back to bank deposits, while stablecoins handle the cross border transfer itself," Cook said. "Your bank account holds deposits, and when you need to move money internationally, FedNow funds a stablecoin wallet in seconds, the stablecoins move on-chain to the recipient's jurisdiction, and the recipient off ramps through their local instant payment system."

A central bank digital currency could also address latency in cross-border payments in the same way as stablecoins, though the current political environment is not favorable to a digital dollar in the U.S., which has outlawed a CBDC during President Trump's second term.  

"So does FedNow cross-border eliminate the case for stablecoins or CBDCs? Not for me. The FedNow proposal still routes through correspondent banks. It makes one leg faster; it doesn't collapse the chain," Cook said. "Stablecoins bypass the chain entirely."