Federal Reserve seeks feedback on faster payments security

The Federal Reserve's secure payments task force has called for input from the payments industry on securing faster transactions.

The task force's online survey will collect comments on the committee's efforts to enhance payment identity management, data protection and information sharing related to risk and fraud. The survey will be open for comment through Nov. 8. The Federal Reserve has been working for years on a faster payments initiative, recently adding IBM to help modernize the electronic payment rails.

"Tackling today's security challenges will require the commitment of all payment system participants," Gordon Werkema, payments strategy director for the Federal Reserve System, said in an Oct. 25 press release.

The task force is particularly interested in "understanding any barriers that may exist to implementing planned solutions," Werkema added.

Work groups covering each of the priority areas have been meeting to document the current environment, attributes of a more effective approach, and the desired outcomes in each area.

"Payment security issues such as data breaches and identity theft affect everyone," Todd Aadland, the Federal Reserve's payments security strategy leader and chair of the secure payments task force, said in the release. "We encourage people who are knowledgeable about or interested in payment security to take the survey and share their thoughts."