Fed Works Toward Faster Payments; Disagreement on Fed Role Posted by Association of Vermont Credit Unions on 10:03 AM

It’s been over 2 years since the Federal Reserve issued its Strategies for Improving  the U.S. Payment System paper, in which the Fed outlined initiatives for the payments industry and its stakeholders to promote progress. For the Fed, progress means improving the speed, security and efficiency of the payments system, and to focus on international payments capabilities and promote collaboration within the field.

Earlier this week the Fed announced publication of its follow-up paper, Federal Reserve Next Steps in the Payments Improvement Journey, in which it highlights some of the progress that has been made in each of the categories upon which the Fed is focusing its payments improvement efforts and outlines next steps for industry stakeholders to take in order to continue making progress. Those categories include security, efficiency, cross-border payments and collaboration.

Read the full article in detail on pymnts.com 

Meanwhile, not everyone is in agreement about the role that the Federal Reserve board should play in a wold of almost real-time payment processing.   Henry Meier, General Counsel to the New York Credit Union Association, comments in his blog on a possibly growing schism between mega institutions that are advancing payments on their own, and credit unions and community banks that need continued Fed involvement.

Read his commentary online.