Nacha's Payments Innovation Alliance and the U.S. Faster Payments Council Collaborate to Develop the Faster Payments Playbook

ORLANDO, Fla., May 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Nacha and its Payments Innovation Alliance, jointly with the U.S. Faster Payments Council, are announcing a collaboration to further develop the Faster Payments Playbook, an educational and online decisioning platform that will help banks, credit unions and businesses develop a faster payments strategy – from concept to reality.

The Playbook will be a co-branded industry resource developed by the two groups that will address faster payments developments and opportunities for stakeholders. The first iteration of the Playbook will focus on financial institutions of all sizes and types – including credit unions, and community and regional banks – followed by a version for business end-users.

The Alliance, comprised of a diverse membership of corporates, third-party processors, fintechs and financial institutions, with its broad understanding of the payments environment, is playing a crucial role in helping organizations gain clarity on the topic of faster payments. The Faster Payments Project Team was formed in June 2018 and currently consists of more than 60 organizations.

Comprised of more than 150 financial institutions, payment network operators, technology providers, business end users, consumer organizations and others, the U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC) is a new membership organization whose goal is to advance the U.S. payment system so that Americans can safely and securely pay anyone, anywhere, at any time with near-immediate funds availability. In the few short months since its launch, the FPC has introduced three work groups designed to address immediate industry needs: safety and security; end-user transparency; and education and awareness.

"The Alliance brings together a diverse group of industry leaders to gain insights and develop resources for the industry to use to navigate the quickly changing financial services environment," said Jane Larimer, chief operating officer of Nacha. "The Faster Payments Project Team has been working for almost a year to develop faster payments resources, including the Playbook. The group is now looking forward to working with the FPC to leverage the strengths of both groups to better serve the entire industry as it navigates the evolving faster payments landscape."

"Our partnership on the Faster Payments Playbook directly supports the efforts of the FPC's education and awareness work group," said Kevin Christensen, FPC's acting executive director and interim board chair. "The FPC is about progress—about moving the collective industry forward. We see this Playbook as a key step in supporting that vision."

The Alliance and the FPC unveiled a prototype of the online Playbook as a preview for the industry at Smarter. Faster. PAYMENTS 2019, which will be held today through May 8 in Orlando. For more information on the Faster Payments Playbook initiative or to join the Alliance's Faster Payments Playbook Project Team, visit https://www.nacha.org/content/payments-innovation-alliance.

About Nacha's Payments Innovation Alliance
The Payments Innovation Alliance is a 200-plus membership organization that brings together diverse, global stakeholders to support payments innovation. Through collaboration, discussion, debate, education, networking and special projects, the Alliance seeks to grow and advance payments and payments technology to better meet and serve the needs of the evolving industry. For more information and to learn how to join, visit www.nacha.org/content/payments-innovation-alliance.

About the U.S. Faster Payments Council
The FPC is a new industry-led membership organization whose mission is to facilitate a world class payment system where Americans can safely and securely pay anyone, anywhere, at any time and with near-immediate funds availability. By design, the FPC encourages a diverse range of perspectives and is open to all stakeholders in the U.S. payment system. Guided by principles of fairness, inclusiveness, flexibility and transparency, the FPC will use collaborative, problem-solving approaches to resolve the issues that are inhibiting broad faster payments adoption in this country. For more information, please visit FasterPaymentsCouncil.org.

About Nacha
Nacha is a nonprofit organization that convenes hundreds of diverse organizations to enhance and enable ACH payments and financial data exchange within the U.S. and across geographies. Through the development of rules, standards, governance, education, advocacy, and in support of innovation, Nacha's efforts benefit all stakeholders. Nacha is the steward of the ACH Network, a payment system that universally connects all U.S. bank accounts and facilitates the movement of money and information. In 2018, there were 27 billion ACH payments, and more than $51 trillion in value moved across the ACH Network. Nacha also leads groups focused on API standardization and B2B payment enablement. Visit nacha.org for more information, and connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

SOURCE Nacha