On October 4, 2016, nearly 500 members of two national task forces convened by the US Federal Reserve Board began their review of nineteen proposals submitted by interested task force members across the payments industry that outline potential approaches for a faster payment system in the United States.
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, each of which includes representatives of financial institutions, consumer groups, payment service providers, financial technology firms, businesses, government agencies and other interested parties, follows an independent analysis of the proposals by a global consulting firm, which assessed the proposals against 36 effectiveness criteria created by members of both task forces earlier this year.
A final two-part report is expected to 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. The report will detail gaps in the current payments landscape, identify opportunities for improvements and 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, offering models of what an end-to-end faster payment system in the United States could look like and demonstrating how each proposal measured up against the various effectiveness criteria. This section will also 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.
The Federal Reserve Board press release is available at: http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/other/20161004a.htm.
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