Speed Isn’t the Enemy — It’s the Enabler of Trust

Kyle Caldwell, VP, Head of Fraud Prevention at The Clearing House

Speed Isn’t the Enemy: It’s the Enabler of Trust

For years, the conversation around instant payments has often centered on a single misconception: that speed and security are at odds. In reality, speed builds trust and narrows the window of opportunity for fraud. It allows businesses to settle payments instantly, consumers to receive funds with certainty, and financial institutions to deliver confidence in every transaction.

At The Clearing House, we believe instant payments are only as strong as the trust that underpins them. The RTP® network was built with that principle in mind, and it continues to evolve with new fraud-mitigation capabilities designed to keep pace with innovation.

Real-Time Doesn’t Mean Risk-Blind

While RTP payments clear and settle in seconds, that doesn’t mean they move without oversight. Before the RTP payment message is sent to the network, sending financial institutions can review the sender’s history, payment patterns, and account behavior to confirm the payment fits within their risk tolerance.

Think of it like getting ready to pull your car out of a parking spot; before pulling out, you check your mirrors, adjust your seatbelt, and scan the road to be sure the road is clear. Similarly, organizations can use that brief moment before the payment leaves their environment to assess potential risk. These pre-send reviews, combined with our new optional risk attribute service, strengthen the ecosystem without slowing down the payment.

Introducing the RTP Fraud Service

To further enhance safety across instant payments, The Clearing House has launched a pilot for an optional RTP Fraud Service - a network-level initiative that gives participating financial institutions greater visibility into potential risk before a payment is sent.

The service introduces three key capabilities:
  • Network-Level Risk Insights. Through an API, institutions can access attributes regarding a Receiver’s account that may highlight unusual account behavior or prior fraud indicators, enabling more informed payment decisions. Financial Institutions gain the benefit of anomalous patterns of transactions beyond their own four walls.
  • Collaborative Case Management. A secure Case Management System allows participants to alert one another of fraud claims and coordinate investigations, accelerating responses to emerging fraud trends.
  • Enhanced Fraud Reporting. Institutions submit standardized daily data through a daily reporting process,  which supports the new network level risk insights.
These shared insights give institutions the confidence that safety is embedded in every transaction and not overlooked or neglected.

Pilot Timeline and Participation

The RTP Fraud Service pilot is underway, engaging some of the largest sending institutions on the network.

Collaborating for Safer Instant Payments

Effective fraud prevention is not a competitive advantage, it is a shared responsibility. By combining network-level data with institution-level controls, the RTP network strengthens trust in real-time payments while preserving the speed and efficiency that make them valuable.

As adoption of instant payments grows, The Clearing House will continue to collaborate with financial institutions, technology providers, and the Faster Payments Council to ensure that innovation and security advance together.

As innovation accelerates, our shared goal is simple: payments should move faster and the sender and receiver should trust the payment is secure.

For more information about the RTP Fraud Service and how it supports faster, safer payments, please reach out to TCHinfo@theclearinghouse.org or listen in to the Off the Rails podcast on 11/20/2025 for insights from The Clearing House.

Go Back