Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Members of the two national task forces convened by the Federal Reserve to make payments faster and more secure have begun to review and discuss 19 specific proposals submitted by interested task force members across the payments industry that outline potential approaches for a faster payment system in the United States.

The detailed proposals and preliminary assessments have been distributed to the nearly 500 members of the two task forces, each of which includes representatives of financial institutions, consumer groups, payment service providers, financial technology firms, businesses, government agencies, and other interested parties.

One task force is focused on faster payment capabilities, while the other is working to enhance payment system security. The review by the two task forces follows an independent analysis of the proposals by the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, which assessed the proposals against criteria created by members of both task forces.

A final two-part report will result from the Faster Payments Task Force work effort. The first section, slated for release in January 2017, will describe the task force history and background, including the process undertaken to identify and assess faster payments solutions. In addition, the report will detail gaps in the current payments landscape and identify opportunities for improvements. It will also outline the benefits to the public of a faster payment system and the needs it would serve.

The second section of the final report, targeted for release in mid-year 2017, will include a discussion and assessment of the specific proposals. The proposals will offer models of what an end-to-end faster payment system in the United States could look like and will show how each proposal measured up against the various effectiveness criteria. In addition to the proposals and the assessments, this section will identify strategic issues deemed important to the successful development of faster payments in the United States and recommend industry actions required to advance their implementation and adoption.

Gordon Werkema, Payments Strategy Director for the Federal Reserve System, said, "The review that began yesterday is the next step in the ongoing process to improve the speed and safety of payments in the United States."

"The ultimate goal of the Faster Payments Task Force is to help payment system stakeholders implement faster payment capabilities that are safe and ubiquitous," he said.

Sean Rodriguez, the Federal Reserve's Faster Payments Strategy Leader and chair of the Faster Payments Task Force, added that, "The task force review process is designed to facilitate diverse stakeholder input for the benefit of potential operators of faster payments capabilities, end users of these systems, and the public at large. The goal of this process is to create broad adoption of these capabilities by consumers and businesses over the coming years."

"The Federal Reserve is extremely pleased with the level of enthusiasm and commitment demonstrated across both task forces as they continue to work to help develop faster payments capabilities for the United States," Rodriguez said.

The task forces unveiled 36 effectiveness criteria earlier this year. An advisory group comprised of steering committee members from both task forces is overseeing the assessment process.