Around the time The Clearing House was preparing to launch the RTP Network in late 2017, TCH formed the RTP Corporate Advisory Group, an array of corporate users that could bring their perspectives to the faster payments table.The participants in the RTP Network Corporate Advisory Group include: Duke Energy, Elytus Global Holdings, Melio & Company, Michigan State University, Nationwide Insurance, Netflix, Sysco, Trion Solutions, Uber, United Telemanagement Corporation, and Verizon among others.

While there were some initial skeptics about the benefits that the RTP network could deliver, they soon changed their minds. The group’s 15 U.S.-based members quickly grasped the significance of real-time payments coming through the RTP network.

The more corporates learned about the soon-to-be-unveiled RTP network, the more they came to understand the network’s potential, recalls Jim Colassano, Senior Vice President in the Product Development and Strategy group for The Clearing House.

During the group’s first meeting, most participants expressed interest in use case studies for the first new payments “rail” in the United States in more than four decades. But not everyone was sold. More than one participant said it sounded like “a solution in search of a problem.”

“We need our banks to work with us to find applicability for RTP payments,” said the participants. They soon found a need for RTP.

At the 2017 brainstorming sessions, the Corporate Advisory Group’s first use cases were focused on low-volume payment pain points, such as cash payments or those with unique timing demands (as in paying entertainers or staff at sporting events). In 2018, the use cases zeroed in on the precision of payments versus their speed.

As TCH expected, corporate internal priorities, project funding, and technology resource allocation were the chief concerns for a satisfying customer experience. “More than a few of our corporate advisors have their sights set on initiatives that are driven and funded by the improvements the RTP network brings to their customer experience,” wrote Colassano, in an article in Banking Perspectives.

“We work with plenty of banks, but we innovate with a very small group,” according to One RTP Corporate Advisory Group member. As the RTP network becomes commonplace over the next few years, Collassano predicts the table will get crowded. But for now, that table belongs to the banks ready and willing to help their customers innovate on the RTP network.

Read Jim Colassano’s entire article on the Banking Perspective website.