The Clearing House

The Clearing House is a banking association and payments company founded in 1853 as the first banking clearing house in the United States. It was established to streamline check clearing and settlement processes among commercial banks in New York City. Over the years, it has played a crucial role in the financial system, operating through major financial crises and natural disasters while focusing on the safety and efficiency of bank-owned payment systems. The Clearing House Payments Company L.L.C. manages core U.S. payments infrastructure, providing services such as Automated Clearing House (ACH) and wire processing. It is the only private-sector operator of these services in the U.S., handling nearly $2 trillion in payments daily. Additionally, it launched the RTP® (Real-Time Payments) system in 2017, which modernizes payment infrastructure and is available to all U.S. banks. The Clearing House continues to foster collaboration among banks to support the evolution of payment systems.