The Clearing House: The 1853 Banking Cooperative Behind CHIPS, RTP and EPN That Chose Quant

The Clearing House (@TCHtweets) traces its roots to 1853, when 38 New York banks formed a cooperative that effectively served as a "central bank for banks" before the Federal Reserve was created. Today, it is owned by the largest U.S. commercial banks and operates key payment rails across the financial system. Its platforms include CHIPS for high-value wire transfers, the RTP network for instant payments, and EPN, an ACH network used for bank-to-bank transfers such as direct deposit. In 2024, EPN processed 20.7 billion payments totaling $56.4 trillion, representing roughly half of U.S. commercial ACH volume. On September 24, The Clearing House selected @quantnetwork as part of its OnChain Money Initiative to help connect banks' tokenized deposits—digital representations of bank balances. The initiative is backed by major institutions including JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, with the network expected to launch in the first half of 2027.