• The Clearing House plans to pilot cross-border RTP payments in the first half of 2027
• BNY expects to be among the first banks participating in the program
• RTP could beat FedNow to international real-time payment capabilities
• New rules will allow RTP to support the U.S. leg of inbound and outbound transactions
• Banks see strong overseas demand for 24/7 payments involving U.S. beneficiaries
• Both RTP and FedNow are ultimately expected to expand internationally

The race to take U.S. real-time payments global is gathering pace, with The Clearing House preparing to launch cross-border capabilities for its RTP network during the first half of 2027.

The bank-owned payments company plans to introduce the international service through a pilot program, with BNY expected to be among the first financial institutions to participate.

The move could give RTP an early advantage over the Federal Reserve’s FedNow service as both networks look beyond domestic instant payments.

The Fed has proposed extending FedNow internationally but has yet to announce when that functionality will become available.

“BNY is looking to be in the early group of banks to support this in the first half of 2027,” Carl Slabicki, BNY’s head of commercial, global payments and trade, said.

The Clearing House had previously indicated that it was considering international expansion for RTP, but the latest plans provide a clearer timetable for implementation. The company expects early adopter banks to begin testing the functionality next year.

“RTP will be the first US instant payments network to have cross-border payments capability,” The Clearing House spokesperson Greg MacSweeney said.

Real-time international payments are already available in markets including the UK, Australia and India, and BNY sees significant demand for comparable functionality involving U.S. accounts.

RTP launched in 2017, while the Federal Reserve introduced FedNow in 2023. Both currently provide around-the-clock instant payment capabilities domestically, but neither has traditionally allowed the same functionality to extend across U.S. borders.

The international model is known within the payments industry as “one-leg-out,” where one part of a transaction takes place in the U.S. while another involves a foreign jurisdiction.

The Clearing House amended RTP rules earlier this year to accommodate these transactions, allowing the network to serve as the U.S. component of inbound and outbound international payments. Those rule changes are scheduled to take effect next month.

MacSweeney said the updated system would “help address the multi-legged payments challenge of cross border payments,” adding that early adopter banks plan to start piloting the capability early next year.

Other institutions expected to join the pilot have not been disclosed. The Clearing House is owned by a group of major financial institutions that includes JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citizens Bank, Deutsche Bank and Santander.

For banks, the expansion could address growing demand from customers and overseas counterparties for payments involving the U.S. to operate continuously rather than being constrained by traditional processing windows.

“There’s a lot of demand from overseas to be able to pay to and from U.S. beneficiaries on a 24/7 basis,” Slabicki said.

He expects both RTP and FedNow ultimately to offer international capabilities, even if the two networks introduce them on different timetables.

The development could represent another significant step in the modernization of U.S. payments infrastructure.

Extending domestic instant payment rails internationally would give U.S. beneficiaries and foreign counterparties access to faster transactions around the clock while potentially reducing some of the complexity associated with multi-stage cross-border payments.

Slabicki said international availability would “open up a lot of benefit” for both U.S. account holders and their overseas counterparties