Nope, it's still a batch process. Usually the day's batch is collected and sent to the Fed, and then the bank gets their net debit/credit for all their transactions. It'll generally show in accounts the next morning. (Note that there are many details here about exactly which method is used and if there's a third party exchange).
Checks can come back anywhere from nearly instantly (e.x if there's a bad routing number) to a day or two (insufficient funds, or bad accounts, or unauthorized on a commercial account) to a month or two (unauthorized on a personal account) to many months (fraud, US treasury checks). The last can be a real killer, since they're normally big checks on trustworthy accounts (though, not necessarily from trustworthy intermediates).
Checks are never really cleared, they just haven't bounced yet.
Checks can come back anywhere from nearly instantly (e.x if there's a bad routing number) to a day or two (insufficient funds, or bad accounts, or unauthorized on a commercial account) to a month or two (unauthorized on a personal account) to many months (fraud, US treasury checks). The last can be a real killer, since they're normally big checks on trustworthy accounts (though, not necessarily from trustworthy intermediates).
Checks are never really cleared, they just haven't bounced yet.