This is not a 1970s television show about California cops in short shorts.
Rather, it's how global transaction clearing and settling of U.S. dollars gets done on a massive scale.
CHIPS is a private, bank-owned clearinghouse that processes about $1.2 trillion per day across international borders for some of the largest banks in the world. Rather than relying on official bank checks, the global payment system taps into electronic record-keeping.
But you have to be a member, and that is one heck of a Black Card to own.
And these members own the clearinghouse.
Names including J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Wells Fargo, Bank of China, Bank of America, and dozens of other members both domestic and foreign.
CHIPS is one of the two primary networks for interbank transfers. The Federal Reserve Bank operations the other called Fedwire Funds Service. The latter, uh...doesn’t have a cool nickname.
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