Payments Specialist

Position summary: The Payments Operations Specialist provides support of the products and services offered by The Clearing House ensuring transactions are processed with the highest level of quality and in a timely manner. 

The role requires working on a set schedule that ensures 24/7 coverage for TCH customers. 

The hours for this position are: 7 PM- 7-AM Saturday-Monday. Overtime and additional weekend/ Holiday hours may be required. 

About The Clearing House: The Clearing House (TCH) is a banking association and payments company that is owned by the largest commercial banks in the United States. TCH owns and operates the core payments system infrastructure in the US and is currently working to modernize that infrastructure by launching a new, ubiquitous, real-time payment system. TCH is the only private-sector ACH and wire operator in the US, clearing and settling nearly $2 trillion in US dollar payments each day, representing half of all commercial ACH and wire volume. TCH has provided critical services to the banking industry since 1853, and today, our core products facilitate services including Direct Deposit of payroll, bill payments, and check image exchange.

Qualifications Required:  

• Bachelor’s degree in business-related field or a minimum of 5-10 years practical work experience   

• Relevant experience in Banking or Financial institutions   

• Must be available to provide coverage when needed and available to work weekends 

• Must have experience working in a Mainframe and Windows Distributed systems environment 

• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with competing time sensitive priorities 

• Strong attention to detail to ensure firm policies and procedures are adhered to and regulatory requirements are met   

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills (must establish good rapport with internal and external customers) 

• Should demonstrate a strong knowledge of clearing and settlement functions 

• Operations background with firm knowledge of various trade processing, settlement, reporting and regulatory rules and regulations 

• Maintain formal operations and procedural documentation 

• Banking systems background in a batch and or real-time 

• Must have working business knowledge of credit/debit cards and related industry partners and processes, including card network standards such as EMV 

• Apply knowledge of banking and EFT payments systems to assist clients 

• Working knowledge of standard computer software, including MS Excel, Office and Word   

Essential Functions and Responsibilities:  

• Responsible for executing all bank settlements and cut-offs 

• Ensure all incoming inquiries are responded to in a timely and accurate manner 

• Executed scheduled list of activities ensuring critical time-tables are met 

• Provide functional support for all in house applications 

• Respond to inquiries for NACHA and ECCHO standards 

• Respond to settlement reconciliation inquiries for CHIPS, ACH, SVPCO, and RTP 

• Procedural documentation review & maintenance 

• Issue resolution on internal issue tracking system 

• Support weekend testing when assigned 

• Effectively handle application concerns with proper escalation to appropriate subject matter experts and management 

• Maintain industry certificates 

• Execute monthly reporting for management and customers 

• Assist in ad hoc projects as assigned and new product launch operations support 

Success factors/job competencies:  

• All service level agreements are achieved  

• All issues expeditiously resolved and thoroughly documented  

• All documentation completed and maintained accordingly  

• 100% compliance with internal regulatory requirements  

• Ensure training of staff with a focus of skill development and contingency readiness  

• Clear and timely communication with internal and external customers and co-workers  

• Maintenance of department procedures, schedules and checklists  

• Maintenance and creation of reports for team and management  

• Maintain/Obtain industry accreditation 

Physical demands and work environment: Work is generally sedentary in nature. The working environment is generally favorable. Lighting and temperature are adequate, and there are no hazardous or unpleasant conditions caused by noise, dust, etc. Work is generally performed within an office environment, with standard office equipment available.