How do you set out to improve the speed of payments? According to the Federal Reserve’s Strategies for Improving the U.S. Payment System, you start with a call for collaboration and follow quickly with a definition of faster.
In pursuit of its desired outcome for ubiquitous, safe, faster electronic solutions for making a broad variety of business and personal payments, the Federal Reserve established the Faster Payments Task Force in May 2015. A number of DATA community members and collaborators are involved in this important collaborative effort. The mission of the Faster Payments Task Force is to identify effective approach(es) for implementing safe, ubiquitous, faster payments in the United States.
In 2015, the Faster Payments Task Force focused its efforts on defining “faster” in the form of Faster Payments Effectiveness Criteria, which can be used to assess faster payments solutions and guide industry innovation. The 36 criteria are categorized into six groupings, Ubiquity, Efficiency, Safety and Security, Speed, Legal, and Governance, and represent the collective views of payment stakeholders for measuring effective faster payment solutions in the United States. The Faster Payments Effectiveness Criteria, along with a companion glossary to define terms key to understanding the criteria, can be found on FedPaymentsImprovement.org.
In 2016, the task force will focus on the development and assessment of faster payments solution proposals. To this end, we have launched a Capability Showcase, where solution providers can showcase payment capabilities that can support end-to-end faster payments solutions. Any faster payments innovator is welcome (and encouraged) to participate in the Capability Showcase; only Faster Payments Task Force members are eligible to submit an end-to-end solution proposal. Registration for the task force is open and ongoing.
Industry leaders with an interest in the payments system are invited to join the Faster Payments Task Force and other groups involved in the payments improvement initiative. To learn more, follow our work efforts on Twitter (@fedpayimprove) and join the FedPayments Improvement Community or the task force by visiting FedPaymentsImprovement.org.