Fed Opens Portal For Faster Payments Tech Submissions

The U.S. Federal Reserve is traveling along its roadmap to facilitate faster payments in the country. Earlier this month, the body released a progress report on that initiative, highlighting the 36 criteria its task force produced to achieve a faster payments system.

Tacking on to this effort is the Fed’s Faster Payments Capability Showcase, an online portal through which payment, FinTech, startup, financial and technology players can collaborate and upload their own payment component capabilities they believe could help the Fed in its efforts.

The showcase is now live and was launched by the Faster Payments Task Force, according to reports in Banking Exchange published Friday (Feb. 12). According to Sean Rodriguez, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s senior vice president and Faster Payments strategy leader, the site is a bit of a meeting place for these FinTech innovators.

“The task force desired to have a bit of a meeting place, if you will, via our website, for component providers to meet and share information about what their capability is,” he said in an interview with Banking Exchange.

He added that the showcase will remain open for about a year as the task force sifts through the submissions for technologies and capabilities the Fed might use in its Faster Payments efforts.

“We’ll keep it active and running for the foreseeable future, until we figure out that there is no new net value there,” he said, noting that the task force will begin reviewing submissions in the second quarter of this year, with plans to publish its findings early next year.

According to reports, the showcase will look for submissions relating to that list of 36 criteria.

“We hope that the list will serve as a guide for these showcase providers,” Rodriguez added.

Looking ahead, Rodriguez pointed to additional initiatives that the task force will take on this year, including a B2B project. The Remittance Coalition is expected to complete its proof-of-concept for faster B2B payments this year, reports said.