NACHA, FPC Team For Faster Payments Playbook

NACHA and its Payments Innovation Alliance announced that it is working with the U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC) to expand the Faster Payments Playbook.

The Playbook is an educational and online decisioning platform that will enable banks, credit unions and businesses to develop a faster payments strategy. Its first version will focus on financial institutions (FIs), such as credit unions, as well as community and regional banks, while one for business end users is set to follow.

The Alliance — made up of corporations, third-party processors, FinTech firms and FIs — is playing an important role in helping organizations to better understand faster payments.

“The Alliance brings together a diverse group of industry leaders to gain insights, and develop resources for the industry to use to navigate the quickly changing financial services environment,” said Jane Larimer, CEO of NACHA, in a press release. “The Faster Payments Project Team has been working for almost a year to develop faster payments resources, including the Playbook. The group is now looking forward to working with the FPC to leverage the strengths of both groups to better serve the entire industry as it navigates the evolving faster payments landscape.”

Comprised of more than 150 FIs, payment network operators, technology providers, business end users, consumer organizations and others, the FPC was formed to advance the U.S. payments system. Since its recent launch, the FPC has introduced three work groups, designed to address immediate industry needs: safety and security, end-user transparency, as well as education and awareness.

“Our partnership on the Faster Payments Playbook directly supports the efforts of the FPC’s education and awareness work group,” said Kevin Christensen, the FPC’s acting executive director and interim board chairman. “The FPC is about progress — about moving the collective industry forward. We see this Playbook as a key step in supporting that vision.”