Chips celebrates Black Friday by smashing payments record

There are several factors that contributed to Black Friday's record volume. The CHIPS network is the premier USD clearing and settlement system for international payment activity, with 95% of CHIPS payments being the U.S. dollar leg of a funds transfer that begins or ends in another country. Many transactions on Friday, November 29, originated from foreign banks that do not observe the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. These transactions could not be sent through wire systems in the U.S on Thanksgiving and, thus, were part of the extra volume on Friday. The CHIPS network also tends to see higher volumes on the last business day of a month.

Another contributing factor is increased volume since the CHIPS network adopted the ISO 20022 message format in April. The CHIPS network is the first high-value payment system in the United States to adopt an ISO 20022 message format. The successful migration to messages using the ISO 20022 standard means that CHIPS messages now align with message formats used by other global high-value payment systems, substantially enhancing the efficiency and information content of cross-border payments for CHIPS participants and their end-user customers.

"Financial institutions around the world rely on the CHIPS network to reliably clear and settle U.S. dollar payments," said Richard Dzina, Senior Vice President, Core Product Management, The Clearing House. "Black Friday's record shows that the CHIPS network plays an integral part in facilitating efficient global trade and helps to maintain the U.S. dollar as the world's leading reserve and settlement currency."