Governance Framework Formation Team

Governance Framework Formation Team

The Faster Payments Task Force believed that an industry-led framework for cross-solution collaboration and decision making was needed to support achievement of faster payments – so much so that it was Recommendation One (Off-site) of their Faster Payments Task Force Final Report (Off-site) – The U.S. Path to Faster Payments.

The task force established the Governance Framework Formation Team (GFFT), a short-term work group, to recommend a faster payments governance framework for the U.S. marketplace. Its objectives were to:

• Develop an initial faster payments governance framework that incorporates public commentary; and
• Establish the framework and membership.

The GFFT focused on the structure, decision-making and processes of a governance framework for a new organization that would fulfill the task force’s vision. After developing its recommendations, the GFFT sought industry input in April 2018 and received more than 1,000 comments from a diverse range of industry stakeholders during a 60-day feedback period. After considering the comments and deliberating further, the GFFT finalized the operating vision for a new, separate organization, the U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC). The FPC was publicly launched in November 2018, effectively concluding the work of the GFFT.

This was a major milestone in the nation’s faster payments journey – a new organization whose mission is to facilitate ubiquitous faster payments in the United States. Infused with the same spirit of collaboration as GFFT and the task force, the FPC encourages a diverse range of perspectives and is open to all stakeholders in the U.S. payment system, including financial institutions of all sizes, payment network operators, technology providers, consumer and business end users and a range of other organizations or individuals with a professional interest in payments. The FPC will work with all stakeholders to:

• Meet evolving end-user needs by advancing the faster payments ecosystem
• Drive the emerging faster payments infrastructure toward ubiquity
• Foster a high-quality and secure user experience for all
• Support widespread use of faster payments

Five Things to Know about GFFT and the FPC

1. The Federal Reserve facilitated and supported the work efforts of GFFT. GFFT then formed the FPC in response to a key recommendation from the Faster Payments Task Force. The FPC is now a separate, fully functioning entity outside of the Federal Reserve and its payments improvement efforts.
2. It was important to the task force that the members of the GFFT represent all stakeholder perspectives. Members were elected from within the task force or appointed by the formation team itself and include qualified representatives from each of the defined task force segments. See the Member List (PDF).
3. The description of the FPC differs in some respects from the recommendations in the task force’s Final Report. Establishing a governance framework was beyond the scope of the task force and as such, they commissioned the GFFT to do so. The GFFT has worked to balance adherence to the task force vision in the Final Report Recommendations.
4. The GFFT envisions that from the outset, the FPC will focus on private sector approaches to solving problems and removing barriers to achieving ubiquity. Specifically, this means facilitating steps that can lead to interoperability, enabling all end users to receive immediate payments, as this will make origination of faster payments more attractive to payers and drive adoption overall.
5. Originally, GFFT was named the Interim Collaboration Work Group, as noted in The U.S. Path to Faster Payments; members renamed the group to something that more closely spoke to the work they were tasked with doing.