Fed taps team to recommend ‘faster payments’ in second half of 2018

Faster payments in the United States, realized through a government framework, will be the focus of a 27-member team made up of government, academic and financial industry representatives announced Friday by the Federal Reserve as a “short-term work group.”

The group, to be known as the “U.S. Faster Payments Governance Framework Formation Team,” the Fed stated in a release, has two objectives: to develop an initial, faster payments governance framework which incorporates public commentary, and; to establish the framework and membership.

The task force’s work, according to the Fed, will be completed in the second half of 2018.

The Fed stated that the formation team will initially focus on the structure, decision-making and processes of a governance framework, and “is committed to keeping industry stakeholders abreast of progress by seeking comment on its recommendations in the spring of next year, with the goal of concluding its work in the second half of 2018.”

The group was formed on the recommendation of the now-dissolved “Faster Payments Task Force,” as described in a July 21 final report titled, “The U.S. Path to Faster Payments.”

The Fed said that, before its dissolution, the prior group elected the initial membership of the Governance Framework Formation Team “to ensure representation of all stakeholder perspectives in the effort, in addition to providing the team latitude to appoint additional members to secure needed expertise and perspectives.”

The group’s membership, the Fed said, is:

Lou Anne Alexander, Early Warning Services
James Angel, Georgetown University
Douglas Berg, Wells Fargo & Company
Michael Bilski, North American Banking Company
Kevin Christensen, SHAZAM Network
Roy DeCicco, Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X9
Susan Doyle, Commerce Bank
John Drechny, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Tim Dwyer, Nationwide Insurance
Jan Estep, NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association
Matthew Friend, Visa, Inc.
Andrea Gilman, Mastercard
Barbara Gross, Bankers’ Bank
Charles Harkness, Corporate One Federal Credit Union
John Hill, Fiscal Service, U.S. Department of the Treasury
Mark Keeling, The Bankers Bank
Stephen Kenneally, American Bankers Association
Steve Ledford, The Clearing House
Gene Neyer, Finastra
Brian Peters, Financial Innovation Now
Deborah Phillips, Jack Henry & Associates
Tom Rea, U.S. Bank
Adam Rust, Reinvestment Partners
Gary Stein, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Christina Tetreault, Consumers Union
David Walker, ECCHO
Bradley Wilkes, WingCash LLC

U.S. Faster Payments Governance Framework Formation Team announced