Two systems clear large-value USD payments in the United States: Fedwire, run by the Federal Reserve, and CHIPS, run by The Clearing House. They overlap heavily and most banks use both. The differences matter for speed, finality, and fees.
Fedwire is a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system. Every payment settles individually and immediately in central-bank money. Once a Fedwire transfer settles, it is irrevocable. Open 21:00 ET Sunday to 19:00 ET Friday.
CHIPS is a netting system. Payments accumulate during the day and settle in net positions through the day, with final settlement across Fedwire at end of day. Settlement happens roughly every minute throughout the day for CHIPS members.
Cost: CHIPS is significantly cheaper for high-volume banks (fractions of a cent per payment vs Fedwire's 0.82-1.50 USD per transaction at higher volumes). For end customers the bank pricing rolls up into a single wire fee.
Which one carries a given USD wire is a function of the sending bank's routing logic — typically CHIPS for cross-border correspondent flows where time-of-day flexibility helps net positions; Fedwire for time-critical settlement (margin calls, securities settlement).
For cross-border wires arriving in the US, the international correspondent (e.g. Citi NY, JPMorgan NY, BNY Mellon) decides the routing internally. The MT103 you send abroad does not specify CHIPS vs Fedwire — the US correspondent chooses.
For tracking: GPI tracking on a USD wire that traverses CHIPS will show the timestamp at the US correspondent. The CHIPS-internal settlement event itself is not exposed on GPI.
Settlement on CHIPS happens within minutes once members are funded for the cycle. Practical end-to-end speed for cross-border USD wires is the same.
Pre-settlement, theoretically, but in practice CHIPS settles continuously and revocation windows are very short. Once final-settled across Fedwire, irrevocable.
You typically cannot — banks do not expose this to customers. The bank can tell you if asked.
Both migrated to ISO 20022 in 2025. Format is MX (pacs.008 / pacs.009 in HVPS+ profile).