Fed Names 27 To Serve On US Faster Payments Working Group

The Federal Reserve, on behalf of the Governance Framework Formation Team, announced the members of the collaborative industry short-term workgroup tasked with developing a governance framework for faster payments in the United States.

The 27-member team, originally called the interim collaboration work group, was established by the Faster Payments Task Force and described in its July 21 final report titled, “The U.S. Path to Faster Payments.”

Created in 2015, the Federal Reserve Faster Payments Task Force looked at ways to make U.S. faster payments safer and more efficient, addressing the rising demand from consumers and businesses for faster payment solutions, and to help guide banks and other financial organizations as they moved forward with efforts to offer faster payment capabilities.

In response to the Task Force’s request that the Federal Reserve facilitate the work of the Governance Framework Formation Team, Sean Rodriguez, faster payments strategy leader at the Federal Reserve and chair of the task force, will also serve as chair of the group.

“The work of the Faster Payments Task Force was successful because 300-plus payment stakeholders came to the table with a common goal of an improved payment system for the U.S.,” said Rodriguez. “I’ve seen this same enthusiasm with the Governance Framework Formation Team. They are committed to working together in order to achieve the task force vision of ubiquitous faster payments capabilities in the U.S. by 2020.”

The team’s objectives include developing an initial faster payments governance framework that incorporates public commentary, as well as establishing the framework and membership. It will initially focus on the structure, decision-making and processes of a governance framework, seeking comment on its recommendations in the spring of next year and striving to conclude its work in the second half of 2018.

Prior to its dissolution, the Faster Payments Task Force elected the initial membership of the Governance Framework Formation Team to ensure representation of all stakeholder perspectives, in addition to providing the team the ability to appoint additional members to secure needed expertise and perspectives.