Washington, D.C (Oct. 3, 2018)—Independent Community Bankers of America® (ICBA) President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey issued the following statement on today’s Federal Reserve Board request for comments on its role in faster payments.
“ICBA and the nation’s community bankers commend the Federal Reserve Board for its proposals to advance faster payments, but we remain concerned that the agency has not yet addressed universal access for financial institutions of all sizes. The Fed board’s development of a clearing, settlement, and liquidity infrastructure supporting faster payments will be in vain if they are not available to all financial institutions, including community banks.
“As in our April 2017 industry letter on faster payments, ICBA continues to encourage the Fed to use its connectivity among financial institutions to provide universal access, serve an operational role as it does for other payments services, and operate a payments directory that links to financial institutions and other private-sector payments directories. By serving an operational role, the Fed will provide safety, integrity and equitable access to all financial institutions, as it currently does for checks, ACH payments and wire transfers, which will lead to greater adoption of faster payments and will build a foundation for financial innovation.
“ICBA and community banks look forward to continuing to work with the Fed and other stakeholders on these important initiatives to ensure that all institutions and their customers can build upon real-time payment technology.”
About ICBA
The Independent Community Bankers of America®, the nation’s voice for nearly 5,700 community banks of all sizes and charter types, is dedicated exclusively to representing the interests of the community banking industry and its membership through effective advocacy, best-in-class education and high-quality products and services. For more information, visit ICBA’s website at www.icba.org.
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