Fed task force issues final report on how to speed up payments

A task force the Federal Reverse established in 2015 to find ways to allow for faster payments in the United States completed its work when it issued its final report, The U.S. Path to Faster Payments: A Call To Action.

The Faster Payments Task Force was comprised of more than 300 members, including financial institutions, consumer groups, payment service providers, financial technology firms, merchants and government agencies.

The task force report includes 16 proposed solutions, challenges to implement faster payments and 10 recommendations for industry collaboration and action, many of which request Federal Reserve action or support.

“The task force has accomplished groundbreaking work to define what stakeholders expect from a future payment system and how industry collaboration can help to deliver it,” said Esther George, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. “The level of collaboration within this large and diverse group of stakeholders was encouraging and productive.”

According to the report, payment system stakeholders need to create a better payment system allowing for all payment service providers to receive faster payments and make the funds available to customers in real time. The infrastructure required to support faster payments, security threats, changing customer needs and leveraging technology to foster continuous innovation are some of the other topics covered in the report.

The Federal Reserve is reviewing the recommendations in the report and expects to announce “our next steps in the coming weeks,” said Federal Reserve Board Governor Jerome Powell, who co-chairs the payments improvement initiative oversight committee.