ARMONK, N.Y., Sept. 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM
(NYSE: IBM) today announced The Clearing House, a national
payments system operator for the U.S. banking industry, has
selected IBM to help deliver a new real-time payments system due to
roll out in 2017. Set to transform domestic digital transactions,
the real-time payments system (RTP) is designed to enable consumers
and businesses across the U.S. to send and receive payments
instantaneously.
IBM joins VocaLink, the international payments systems provider
previously selected by The Clearing House, to build the
first-of-its-kind payments system in the U.S. After evaluating
various hardware technology infrastructures on which to run the
VocaLink solution, The Clearing House selected an IBM POWER8-based
system infrastructure running Linux and AIX operating systems as
the hosting platform.
Responsible for clearing nearly $2
trillion in payments per day, The Clearing House will
utilize the unique capabilities of the POWER8 architecture to
efficiently process millions of bank payments settled daily, in
real-time, in a security-rich environment. The ubiquitous system is
expected to help reduce and eliminate payment delays and give
receivers of financial payments immediate access to funds and
support complex business payment services including electronic
invoicing, rich remittance data and confirmation of delivery.
The Clearing House plans to launch the new system with major
U.S. banks in 2017. RTP is designed to support thousands of
simultaneous transactions per second, processing payments 24 hours
a day, 7 days a week. Once implemented, RTP will provide a hub that
is accessible to all financial institutions and allow customers to
use their existing accounts at financial institutions to send and
receive payments.
"The real-time payments solution we're building marks an
important milestone for the U.S. banking industry, a revolution in
the payments market that brings a new level of service to
businesses and consumers," said Tom
Statnick, Chief Information Officer, The Clearing House. "To
support our real-time initiative, it was crucial we had the right
technology infrastructure in place. With IBM Power Systems running
Linux and AIX as our base infrastructure, we have the security,
availability and resilience required for this industry-changing
undertaking."
Prior to building the custom solution for The Clearing House,
IBM and VocaLink ran an extensive set of performance and resiliency
tests of the payments service on a set of enterprise-class Power
Systems. The IBM POWER8-based infrastructure supported a sustained
2,500 transactions per second – a record result for the VocaLink
application. VocaLink previously offered its real-time banking
solutions on x86-based infrastructure.
"Our collaboration with IBM, and expansion of our solution onto
the Power platform, will transform the amount and speed of data and
result in the delivery of a payments solution currently unimagined
in the U.S.," said George Evers,
Director of Immediate Payment Solutions, VocaLink. "Together, we
will transform payments to offer consumers and businesses the
capability for an immediate and convenient payment
option."
"The Clearing House is combining digital intelligence with
digital delivery to benefit banking customers across the country in
new and meaningful ways," said Doug
Balog, General Manager, POWER, IBM Systems. "As the growth
of data, mobile engagement and cloud computing continues to present
business opportunities to all industries, information technology
infrastructure continues to play an increasingly important
role."
Also supporting the initiative to digitally transform payments
transactions in the U.S. and to complement the new payments system
under development by The Clearing House, IBM will offer expanded
payment capabilities within its Financial Transaction Manager (FTM)
portfolio. FTM, which runs on multiple platforms including
IBM Power and z Systems, can help commercial banks rapidly connect
to and enable new services using real-time payments.
About The Clearing House
The Clearing House is a
banking association and payments company that is owned by the
largest commercial banks and dates back to 1853. The Clearing
House Payments Company L.L.C. owns and operates core payments
system infrastructure in the United
States and is currently working to modernize that
infrastructure by building a new, ubiquitous, real-time payment
system. The Payments Company is the only private-sector ACH
and wire operator in the United
States, clearing and settling nearly $2 trillion in U.S. dollar payments each day,
representing half of all commercial ACH and wire volume. Its
affiliate, The Clearing House Association L.L.C., is a nonpartisan
organization that engages in research, analysis, advocacy and
litigation focused on financial regulation that supports a safe,
sound and competitive banking system. To learn more, go to
www.theclearinghouse.org.
About VocaLink
VocaLink is a global payments partner
to banks, corporates and governments. VocaLink designs, builds and
operates world-class platforms that make it easier for people to
make payments confidently and securely. In the UK, VocaLink
processes over 90% of salaries, more than 70% of household bills
and almost all state benefits. VocaLink's high availability,
resilient payment systems power the Faster Payments Service on
behalf of the Faster Payments Scheme, the Account Switching
platform, Bacs and the Direct Debit Scheme. VocaLink also connects
the world's busiest network of over 70,000 ATMs through the LINK
scheme. Last year VocaLink processed over 11 billion
transactions with a value of £6 trillion - powering economies and
empowering people. For payment news and insight to to
http://connect.vocalink.com/.
About IBM
To learn more about IBM Power
Systems, visit www.ibm.com/power or the IBM Systems blog.
Media Contacts
IBM
Kristin Bryson /
Samantha Mayowa
+1 (203) 241-9190 / +1 (401) 419-9569
kabryson@us.ibm.com / sbmayowa@us.ibm.com
The Clearing House
Sean Oblack
+1 (202) 649-4629
Sean.Oblack@theclearinghouse.org
VocaLink
David Daniel/Ellie Fixter
+44 (0) 203 8184 508 / +44 (0) 20 3818 4944
david.daniel@vocalink.com / ellie.fixter@vocalink.com
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SOURCE IBM