The Federal Reserve System’s Secure Payments Task Force engaged a diverse array of stakeholders in advancing the work outlined in Strategies for Improving the U.S. Payment System (PDF), published in January 2015. The mission of the Secure Payments Task Force was to provide a forum for stakeholders to advise the Federal Reserve in its leader/catalyst and operator roles on payment security matters, and identify and promote actions that can be taken by payment system participants collectively or by the Federal Reserve System that advance the following desired outcome:
U.S. payment system security that remains very strong, with public confidence that remains high, and protections and incident response that keeps pace with the rapidly evolving and expanding threat environment.
Bringing All Perspectives to the Table
The Secure Payments Task Force consisted of approximately 200 participants that represented all stakeholders within the payments ecosystem, and was categorized into eight unique stakeholder segments as shown in the figure below.
Each of these eight segments elected representatives to serve on the Secure Payments Task Force Steering Committee, an advisory body that coordinated with broader segment participants to establish segment-specific positions and provide guidance on key decisions and work products. In addition to electing Steering Committee members to help guide the task force toward consensus on deliverables, the task force also developed a Decision-Making Framework to provide structure in how the task force generated support for and approval of key task force processes, initiatives, and work products.
Secure Payments Task Force Objectives
The unique opportunity for all stakeholders to collaborate enabled the task force to focus on the following objectives:
- Provide advice to the Federal Reserve on payment security matters.
- Coordinate with the Faster Payments Task Force to identify solutions for any new or modified payments infrastructure so that it is both fast and secure.
- Determine areas of focus and priorities for future action to advance payment system safety, security and resiliency.
With facilitation support from the Federal Reserve, task force participants took an active role developing work products through consensus building at face-to-face meetings, teleconferences, segment calls, webinars, surveys and other tools designed to solicit participant viewpoints. To further support this effort, the Secure Payments Task Force created the following work groups:
- Payment Identity Management
- Information Sharing for the Mitigation of Payments Risk and Fraud
- Data Protection
Each of the work groups convened regularly to discuss and document the challenges, attributes, and desired outcomes of a more effective payments environment. These work groups were also supported by a Law and Regulation Coordination work group and a Standards Assessment Team, both of which provided input on key deliverables based on their subject matter expertise.
Get Involved
As a payment system stakeholder, you can engage in payments improvement efforts by joining the FedPayments Improvement Community. Visit our engage page to learn more.