Six banks announced the formation of a secure, real-timepayments network Monday. The enhanced platform will be open tocredit unions and banks of all sizes.

“We are combining our collective, bank-owned digital paymentsnetwork (clearXchange) with our fraud, risk and authenticationassets (Early Warning), to further ensure that our customers cansend money, confidently, securely and in real-time via theirfinancial institutions,” the CEOs of Bank of America, BB&T,Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo said in ajoint statement.

Early Warning will acquire clearXchange, the largest bank-owneddigital payments network in the United States. As part of thetransaction, U.S. Bank and PNC will join Bank of America, BB&T,Capital One, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo as owners of EarlyWarning, pending completion of all applicable regulatoryreviews.

“Our customers want the ability to make payments to anyone, inreal-time, making funds instantly available in the recipient's bankaccount,” the CEOs of the six banks stated.

“The bank CEOs are providing leadership at a time when theindustry is looking for guidance and customers' expectations haverapidly evolved,” Paul Finch, president/CEO of the Scottsdale,Ariz.-based Early Warning said. “With this acquisition, EarlyWarning is bringing together immediate funds availability,integrated authentication and fraud management capabilities into asingle platform. The resulting security, reliability andconsistency among financial institution payment services willprovide a required catalyst to advance real-time payments.”

The platform will help modernize and secure the U.S. payment system as envisioned by the Federal Reserve Bank'sPayment System Improvement Initiative, the banks said. Theplatform's capabilities will also fulfill the CFPB's vision ofconsumer protection within new, faster payment systems.

According to the Federal Reserve's white paper, “Strategies forImproving the U.S. Payment System,” which was released earlier thisyear, the U.S. payment system is at a critical point in time in itsevolution as technology rapidly alters numerous elements thatsustain the payment process. The paper disclosed the five desiredoutcomes of the U.S. Payment system are speed, security, efficiency, international access and collaboration,and sought a cooperative endeavor by all stakeholders to attainthese results.