Merchants, community banks and credit unions are pushing the Fed to create their own real-time payments system as an alternative to The Clearing House (TCH); The Clearing House is owned by the biggest banks and is not a public sector solution; if the U.S. would have adopted real-time payments a decade ago when the UK did they could have already saved about $100bn in fees and penalties; the smaller firms believe the TCH gives big banks a huge advantage in the market and if they Fed were to create a system for all, like ACH, than everyone would be playing by the same rules; back in October Federal Reserve Board Governor Lael Brainard asked for comments on real-time payments and the response has been overwhelming. Source.
