The Fed — that quasi-accountable Federal banking system that sets our interest rates, and determines how much cash liquidity we should all be awash in — now wants your help. Or at least, they want your comments.
That same Fed is determined to make payment systems in America more up-to-date, more “21st century” if you will, and is encouraging all of those with involved in the making and receiving of payments “to answer as many or as few questions as desired, based on your interest and expertise, and to supplement your responses with any other general perspectives on U.S. payment system improvements,” all the way through their mid-December deadline.
What kinds of changes or improvements, you ask?
The Fed has noted several areas where they things in the U.S. can be more “moderne,” and move with greater ease and speed. Sort of like the fiscal equivalent of asking why in heck we don’t have high-speed rail yet? (And why in heck don’t we!?)
Some areas of Fed concern on the payment landscape include:
*Lack of payment options for those receiving physical checks
*Limited consumer participation in groundbreaking payment methods like mobile wallets
*Slowness of cross-border payments
*Slow payment and accounting systems used by larger corporations
*Security fears that slow consumer adoption of various electronic payments
The Fed is also worried about the lack of “interoperability” between all the systems coming online — i.e., consumers with one kind of virtual wallet can have a hard time sending payments to someone else with no electronic wallet, or a different one altogether, etc., along with the slowness of “real-time” money transfers and payments.
We encourage anyone to click over to the Fed’s survey siteto let them know where you think improvements can be made, in this rapidly unfolding, always surprising century of ours, where digits are increasingly replacing greenbacks.
Of course, you can also take solace that as an AVPS customer, we’re here to help you navigate the increasingly complex field of real and virtual payments, whether you want to expand to eChecks, mobile payments, card readers for your phone, or more.
And you don’t even have to wait for the Fed’s next report! (Though what they do about interest rates, and quantitative easing, is out of our hands!)
