The Faster Payments Council (FPC) resulted from a multi-year initiative that started with more than 320 industry stakeholders collaborating, with Federal Reserve support, as the Faster Payments Task Force. When the FPC launched, many considered it to be the most significant change to our payment system since the introduction of the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA), the electronic payments network governing body established in 1974.
The FPC is an industry-led membership organization composed of a diverse group of stakeholders whose vision is a world-class payment system where every person or organization can safely and securely pay anyone, anywhere, at any time, and with near-immediate funds availability.
By design, the FPC encourages diverse perspectives and is open to all stakeholders in the U.S. payment system. Guided by principles of fairness, inclusiveness, flexibility and transparency, the FPC uses collaborative, problem-solving approaches to resolve the issues inhibiting broad faster payments adoption in this country. The FPC leadership includes the executive director and the board of directors. As a principles-based organization, its structure, operations, and activities are designed to adhere to the fundamental values of inclusiveness and fairness, flexibility and responsiveness, and transparency in decision-making.
The FPC is necessary to support faster payments because the FPC believes that an industry-led framework for cross-solution collaboration and decision-making is needed to support the achievement of a quicker, ubiquitous, broadly inclusive, safe, highly secure, and efficient payment system. Specifically, a body such as the FPC can facilitate the successful pursuit of the task force goal of ubiquitous receipt – where multiple payment service providers can receive faster payments and make those funds available to their end-user customers in real-time. In addition, a coordinated, industry-wide, and inclusive body is more effective in facilitating adoption, enhancing security, and increasing user awareness than if the parties act separately.
In November 2018, Corporate One became a founding member and the only credit union to serve on the U.S. Faster Payments Council.