The FR sat down with Elena Casal, chief client officer at The Clearing House, to discuss key themes at the upcoming annual conference from The Clearing House taking place in New York on November 12-13.

What can we expect at the 2024 TCH Annual Conference?

The Clearing House Annual Conference is a two-day event focused on key issues facing leading financial institutions. Every year, we’re lucky to assemble a diverse group of executives, policymakers and academics to help discuss pertinent issues related to the regulatory environment and the rapidly-changing payments landscape.

The 2024 Annual Conference is taking place November 12-13, and our keynote speaker is Christopher J. Waller, a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. 

We’re also excited to host a conversation between Jason Kwon, chief strategy officer of OpenAI, and Teresa Heitsenrether, chief data & analytics officer at JPMorganChase, who will discuss how AI is driving change and transformation in banking and financial services now and into the future.

Who should attend the TCH Annual Conference? And what is your goal for the event?

The Clearing House Annual Conference will bring together C-Suite industry executives, policymakers and leading experts to discuss the top issues facing the payments and finance industry. Last year, we had more than 550 attendees from leading financial institutions, technology companies, regulatory agencies and professional services firms.

Our goal for the event is to host a thoughtful dialogue that addresses the challenges and opportunities facing the industry and how to drive it forward. We also hope our programming provides attendees with helpful information about industry trends, new technology and the policy outlook that they can take back to their organizations. 

What are the biggest trends in payments right now? 

The biggest trends we’re seeing in payments that we will also be focusing on at the conference include:

• The future of open banking and the recent CFPB rulemaking under the Dodd-Frank 1033

• The role of AI and the intersection of policy and business implications in finance

• Fraud and fraud mitigation techniques in banking and finance

• The instant payments revolution and how businesses and consumers are benefiting from real-time payments

• The future of digital currencies and the evolving policy debate about the role of public and private sectors in regulating digital currencies

• How the 2024 election cycle is driving change in financial services and what to expect in 2025 and beyond

How will instant payment continue to evolve in 2025?

With real-time payments live in the U.S. for seven years and with volumes growing rapidly, we expect to see instant payments become mainstream in the daily lives of Americans. We continue to see the adoption of real-time payments grow each day through popular use cases, including digital wallets, on-demand payroll, merchant funding and real estate and title insurance transactions. 

We’re also seeing a lot of demand for our Request for Payment (RfP) capability, which is not a use case but a functionality that supports multiple use cases. We’re excited for businesses to have the ability to submit invoices to customers and instantly receive payment and settle those bills.

We are continuing to expand the features and functionalities of The Clearing House RTP® network to help support financial institutions and the industries that would benefit the most from instant payments.