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| Payment Systems |
| We provide a wide range of payment services for financial institutions and the U.S. government. We also help formulate and execute policies for the oversight of U.S. and international payment systems. In addition, we foster innovation in payment systems and conduct research on topical payment issues. |
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| Antitrust
Activity in Card-Based Payment Systems: Causes and Consequences A conference jointly sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Review of Network Economics. September 15 and 16, 2005 |
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Opportunities
to Improve Payments Services 
Despite considerable research and product development focused on improving the efficiency and integrity of the payments process, many new products have failed to improve the corporate payments process significantly. Market researchers suggest this failure may reflect deficiencies in properly assessing customer needs. This study borrows a best practice from that discipline to identify businesses' priorities for improvements. The study establishes which aspects of the payments process are most important and which are the least well met by current services, but also goes beyond past work to integrate the two types of questions and identify the top opportunities for improvement. These areas of opportunity merit further discussion among corporations, their banks, and their service providers, as a starting point for developing improvements to payments services that will lead to greater integrity and efficiency in payments processing. July 2004, 48 pages / 1.569 mb |
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 Why
Use Debit Instead of Credit? Consumer Choice in a Trillion-Dollar
Market
Debit cards are overtaking credit cards as the most prevalent form of electronic payment at the point-of-sale (POS), yet the determinants of a ubiquitous consumer choice "debit or credit?" have received relatively little academic scrutiny. This paper develops analytical frameworks for testing the importance of economic (cost-based) and psychological (mental accounting-based) explanations for debit use, and finds evidence consistent with important roles for both. The methods and findings have implications for the evolution of retail payments in particular, and the modeling of consumer choice more generally. July 2004, 50 pages / 530 kb |
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Federal
Reserve Banks announce strategy to meet evolving demands of
payments system  The Reserve Banks' strategy entails launching new products and services to support the implementation of the Check 21 Act in October 2004, as well as streamlining its check-processing infrastructure by discontinuing check processing at locations to be announced later this year Federal Reserve Banks press release, June 16, 2004 |
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| Proposed
Revisions to Part II of Policy Statement on Payment System Risk The Federal Reserve Board requested comment on proposed revisions to Part II of its Policy Statement on Payment System Risk (PSR Policy). Circular No. 11590, April 22, 2004 |
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| Policy
Statement on Payments System Risk The Federal Reserve Board announced that it intends, beginning in July 2006, to require Reserve Banks to release interest and redemption payments on securities issued by government-sponsored enterprises and international organizations only when the issuer's Federal Reserve account contains sufficient funds to cover these payments. Circular No. 11577, February 11, 2004 |
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| New
Studies to Examine Nation's Check and Electronic Payments Usage The Federal Reserve Banks announced plans to conduct two new studies to determine the current composition of check and electronic payments in the U.S. Circular No. 11572, January 16, 2004 |
