Carrying cash is so old school.
Two years ago the Faster and Secure Payment Task Force was formed to identify faster and safer digital payment methods and on Friday it released its final report with recommendations and proposals for the United State’s systems, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal.
According to the story, many of the new approaches are designed to settle transfers in real-time, for instant transfers between consumers.
Two of the 16 proposals announced Friday by the Faster and Secure Payment Task Force were from Iowa-based financial technology companies Dwolla and Shazam, INC.
Jordan Lampe, Head of Strategic Projects at Dwolla—the Des Moines-based financial technology startup company— served on the steering committee with Bob Steen, CEO of Bridge Community Bank in Mount Vernon, Iowa along with a Luther College graduate and former employee from Wells Fargo in Des Moines.
Lampe said the task force was to identify and evaluate approaches to a faster payment system.
“It was one of those things where we kind of defied the odds, but we needed to do it,” Lampe told Clay & Milk Friday. “Because nobody was coming forward with a faster payment system.”
The task force includes more than 300 representatives from federal agencies, banks, consumer groups, technology firms and merchants, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Lampe said what was released Friday hopefully serves as a stepping stone to updating a system that traces its roots back to the 1970’s.
“I don’t think people realize how necessary this was, we would never get to faster payments without this initiative,” Lampe said. “A lot of the work that is being done to accelerate bringing new systems to market as soon as next year were based on a lot of the effectiveness criteria that everyone created. We created this rubric.”
Lampe said a handful of steering committee members will serve in an interim collaborative workgroup to set up a governmental framework to address gaps.
“Who is going to govern this new payment and regulate this? How are we going to make rules around it?” Lampe says. “There are all these unknown questions and that’s what this new group that was formed will continue to do.”