When The Clearing House added four smaller community banks to its RTP Business Committee this spring, smaller financial institutions saw it as a welcome sign that the bank-owned payments company was addressing the needs of banks of all sizes.

In an interview with American Banker, Cary Whaley, a vice president at the Independent Community Bankers of America, said the recent moves were steps in the right direction for community banks.

Whaley said that the board seats will ensure that all financial institutions, regardless of size, can participate in the real-time payments system and shows that The Clearing House is willing to extend governance and rulemaking responsibilities to community banks. "So this is a step of good faith," Whaley added.

Whaley also noted that RTP fees were universal and that bank size didn’t play a role in pricing.

Boosting credit union representation is a positive development that can help make network governance more responsive to the payment needs of the credit union industry and its 115 million members, Andrew Morris, senior counsel for research and policy at the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions, told American Banker.

Read the entire American Banker new story.