David Watson, President and CEO of The Clearing House, the private-sector institution owned by 26 of America’s largest banks and responsible for clearing and settling around US$2trn of payments every business day, is focused on a handful of core objectives.
Speaking to Treasury Today Group ahead of the organisation’s Annual Conference (4-5th November) in New York, which promises content-rich sessions covering the most important issues in banking, payments, and financial services policy, Watson says facilitating the accelerated rollout of instant payments is one.
The Clearing House currently carries 98% of America’s burgeoning instant payments volume, with over 1,000 banks and credit unions using its RTP® network. While the RTP® network reaches an estimated 73% of bank accounts in the United States, only around a third of US financial institutions are connected to the platform which was launched in 2017, or the FedNow® service, the Federal Reserve’s instant payment system launched in July 2023. It leaves some corporates still looking to access instant payments as a service and tap the benefits of immediate access to funds and the ability to conduct transactions around the clock.
Compared to countries such as Brazil, the UK and India, America has been slower to roll out instant payments, reflects Watson. He says one reason is that the US government doesn’t mandate policy or force banks, businesses, and consumers towards using a particular payment rail with a strict deadline.
Yet he believes that despite the lack of a government mandate to adopt instant payments, being able to learn from the rollout and growth of platforms like the UK’s Faster Payments Service, which was launched in 2008, or Brazil’s Pix, has specific advantages. “We have been able to learn from central banks and private sector clearing and settlement providers on how best to run a real-time payments network,” he says.
Moreover, because payments innovation in the US is not mandated by policymakers, innovation is always driven by the economics of supply and demand. “Because we don’t have the same kind of intervention in the US, using a particular type of payment will only succeed if it makes sense and where it specifically solves a problem,” he says.
As The Clearing House team prepare for a conference expected to attract more than 600 delegates and feature over 20 high-level discussions, Watson reflects on another primary focus area for the 172-year-old institution: harnessing the benefits of ISO 20022, the global messaging standard for financial transactions. By utilising ISO 20022 messages, millions of dollars of payments are now furnished with richer and more structured data, and he says one of his tasks is to ensure organisations now harvest the value of that additional data to support the flow of payments and help prevent fraud.
“Now, it is a question of how we use it,” he says. “The industry has taken a long time to get there, and we want to ensure corporates take advantage of the data that comes out of those messages.” He is particularly encouraged by more US corporates embarking on their own tech journey to integrate richer data into their TMS and ERP systems. “Integrating backend technology change takes money and time and is never quick.”
Legislative focus
Another focus area for The Clearing House is advocating for the payments industry. The company comprises two separate organisations: a payments company, which runs the clearing and settlement infrastructure, and a trade association that lobbies for the industry. Policy changes that will impact the future of payments, like rules for sharing personal financial data and the executive order that federal departments phase out cheques, are coming thick and fast.
The Clearing House worked with policymakers to make sure “know your customer” and other important anti–money-laundering provisions were included in the GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act), which was signed into law in July. Watson says The Clearing House is also leading dialogue around the evolution of tokenised deposits and dollar-backed stablecoins. Unpacking what the GENUIS Act means for banks and the broader payments ecosystem is a panel session at the conference.
As stablecoins and tokenised deposits emerge as a mainstream contender in the financial ecosystem, one of Watson’s priorities has been ensuring banks and nonbanks involved in the crypto space operate on a level playing field so that all market participants are held to the same level of regulatory accountability and transaction transparency.
“Our advocacy is focused on laying the groundwork for innovation in the space. We vouch for what would be in the best interests of the economy, and we are working to ensure that legislation makes everyone accountable, and that everyone can participate fairly,” he says.
Stablecoins and tokenised deposits are an important topic at the conference. Jonathan Gould, the newly confirmed Comptroller of the Currency, who has a background in crypto policy and banking regulation and is set to play an influential role in shaping how banks engage with stablecoins, tokenised assets, and digital payment systems, is speaking during the first “in conversation” session on Tuesday, November 4th.
Watson says The Clearing House is also working to resolve unknowns surrounding digital assets. “A question we are asking ourselves is how much money will be in new money flowing around in stablecoins or tokenised assets, or [how much will be] a cannibalisation of existing fiat money. At the end of the day, fiat clearing and settlement is not going away, and could actually grow off the back of stablecoins and tokenised deposits.”
Yet in another nod to the role of supply and demand driving emerging payment innovation in the US, he concludes that demand for tokenised deposits and stablecoins has yet to take off. “From a domestic perspective, we don’t see many real use cases compared to 24/7 instant payments. The debate is more advanced internationally, and it’s the same with CBDCs [central bank digital currencies] since [President Trump] has made it clear he’s not looking into this.”
The Clearing House annual conference takes place on November 4–5, 2025, in New York.
