REGISTER NOW The past year has seen the emergence of what PNC Financial Services Group's Chris Ward calls the "immediate economy," and that has made all the difference for the bank's real-time payment program. More than 250 of the bank's wholesale clients are now regularly using PNC's connection to The Clearing House's RTP network, which is up from just a handful a year ago. "As so much more gets digitized, there's more of a need to have funds immediately," said Ward, who is the executive vice president and head of product for treasury management at PNC, which is connected to both TCH's RTP network and the bank-backed Zelle peer-to-peer transfer app.