September 5, 2014 - America's Federal Reserve Banks are moving ahead with plans to improve the country's payment infrastructure, promising to publish a roadmap in the coming months that could eventually lead to a faster payments system.

The Reserve Banks released a consultation paper in September 2013 soliciting comments on gaps and opportunities in the payment system. By the close of the exercise in December, the Fed had received over 200 responses, with more than half coming from non-banks.

Meanwhile, the central bank has also been carrying out research into three specific areas: faster retail payments and the different approaches that could be taken to this, gaps and opportunities related to security, and the business case for adopting the ISO 20022 international payment standard.

Without giving away details, the Fed say that it will now gather all the research and stakeholder feedback and put together a roadmap for payment system improvements over the next few months.

Narayana Kocherlakota, president, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, says: "The Federal Reserve remains committed to its mission of payment system integrity, efficiency and accessibility, and we look forward to ongoing collaboration with stakeholders this year and beyond to improve the ability of the US payment system to meet evolving end-user needs for speed, efficiency and security."