aid: the-clearing-house
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/the-clearing-house/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
name: The Clearing House (RTP)
kind: company
description: >-
  The Clearing House (TCH) is a U.S. banking association and payments company
  owned by many of the largest commercial banks. It operates three core payment
  systems: CHIPS (large-value wire clearing), the EPN automated clearing house
  (ACH), and the RTP network, the private-sector real-time payments rail it
  launched in 2017 as the first new U.S. payments infrastructure in decades. RTP
  is a 24/7/365 instant-payments scheme built on the ISO 20022 messaging
  standard, supporting immediate credit-push transfers up to $10 million with
  final settlement, plus Request for Payment (RfP), remittance data, and a UID
  addressing/directory lookup. TCH is the scheme operator for the U.S. market
  and competes with the Federal Reserve's FedNow service. Its API posture is
  documentation- and rulebook-first: TCH does not publish an open, self-serve
  public REST API or downloadable OpenAPI/Swagger specification. Instead it
  publishes ISO 20022 message specifications (pacs, pain, camt, remt) as PDFs,
  the RTP network operating rules, playbooks, and a technology-provider program.
  Real-time HTTP/JSON RTP APIs are surfaced to businesses by participating
  financial institutions (for example U.S. Bank) and registered technology
  providers that connect to the RTP network on their behalf.
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
tags:
- Payments
- United States
- Real-Time Payments
- Instant Payments
- ISO 20022
- Account-to-Account
- Payment Rails
- Scheme Operator
- Request for Payment
created: '2026-07-24'
modified: '2026-07-24'
specificationVersion: '0.21'
apis:
- aid: the-clearing-house:rtp-network
  name: RTP Network (ISO 20022 Messaging)
  description: >-
    The RTP network is The Clearing House's real-time payments scheme for the
    United States, moving credit-push payments instantly, 24/7/365, with final
    settlement up to $10 million per transaction. It is defined by published
    ISO 20022 message specifications rather than an open self-serve REST API:
    Credit Transfer (pacs.008), Message Status Report (pacs.002), Request for
    Payment (pain.013/pain.014), Request for Information (camt.026/camt.028),
    Request for Return of Funds (camt.056/camt.029), Payment Acknowledgement
    (camt.035), Stand-Alone Remittance Advice (remt.001), and the Business
    Application Header (BAH). Access is via participating financial institutions
    and registered technology providers; no downloadable OpenAPI is published by
    TCH.
  humanURL: https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp/technical-documentation
  tags:
  - Real-Time Payments
  - ISO 20022
  - Instant Payments
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp/technical-documentation
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp/document-library
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp/rtp-network-operating-rules
common:
- type: Website
  url: https://www.theclearinghouse.org/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp/technical-documentation
- type: APIReference
  url: https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp/document-library
- type: Blog
  url: https://www.theclearinghouse.org/newsroom
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://www.theclearinghouse.org/terms-of-use
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://www.theclearinghouse.org/privacy-policy
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/the-clearing-house-domain-security.yml
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/the-clearing-house-conformance.yml
- type: LLMsTxt
  url: llms/the-clearing-house-llms.txt
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com