“ABA has been a strong advocate for real-time payments in the U.S., and we believe every bank in the country and their customers will benefit from a seamless and ubiquitous system. We hope today's decision by the Federal Reserve to create its own real-time payments network will speed that transition.

"The reality is that any Fed-built system will still take some time to build, so in the meantime ABA will continue to encourage all banks to embrace the future and consider whether to connect to the existing Real-Time Payments network offered by The Clearing House. We believe any Fed system must be fully interoperable with the RTP network, remain accessible only to chartered financial institutions, and be available through all core processing companies and without volume discounts that disadvantage smaller banks. In addition, we encourage the Fed to create the Liquidity Management Tool it proposed last fall, which would help financial institutions manage fund balances used to settle faster payment transactions regardless of whether they travel on existing faster payment rails or on any new solutions. The Fed should launch the LMT quickly and independently of any other actions that it may take.

"We also urge the Fed, in its role as market regulator, to ensure that the major core processing companies work quickly with all providers of real-time payments solutions. The cores must ensure that their bank customers, regardless of size or choice of provider, are not left behind as customers demand access to real-time payments solutions.

"ABA will continue to work with all stakeholders to see the promise of real-time payments become a reality.”