For more than a year, the central bank has been under pressure to speed the development of a real-time payment system. But it faces tough questions about what its own role should be.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has been taking the lead on a federal license for fintech firms, but the central bank will decide if such companies can access the payments system and other benefits.
The quest for fast payments is advancing on the consumer side, but most banks are said to be undecided about a host of issues tied to speeding up transactions between businesses.
The central bank is taking a lead role in trying to combat the longstanding problem. A broad study by the Fed aims to measure the extent of payments fraud and to foster more collaboration in thwarting it.
The announcement comes after a Federal Reserve Board task force issued a report in September that said it would further examine options for modernizing the U.S. payments system.
Banks and fintechs are competing heavily to modernize cross-border payments, and Citi is using its upgraded treasury unit add speed to its own international cross-border digital payments capabilities in more than 60 countries.
