March 31, 2025 – The U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC), a membership organization devoted to advancing safe, easy-to-use faster payments in the United States, today announced its support for President Trump’s Executive Order requiring that the Department of the Treasury “cease issuing paper checks for all Federal disbursements” and requires that nearly all payments made to the Federal Government shall be processed electronically.
The sweeping order includes intragovernmental payments, benefits payments, vendor payments, and tax refunds, and puts all payments system participants on notice that a massive shift toward payments modernization is coming very soon.
The FPC has noted that check fraud is a rapidly escalating concern, and faster payments provide a far more secure solution at a much lower price than the all-in cost of check processing. According to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, check fraud increased 400% in 2024. Mail-theft check fraud alone is estimated by the agency to have accounted for $688 million in losses last year. And even when check payments are successful, they are expensive. According to the Association for Financial Professionals 2022 Payments Cost Benchmarking Survey, the median cost to the parties for processing a check is between $3.02 and $6.00 per check.
“In today’s modern, digital economy the persistence of checks is not only outdated, but also outright dangerous,” said FPC Executive Director and CEO Reed Luhtanen. “Check fraud is rapidly becoming the single biggest problem for our financial system at a time when check usage should frankly be going the way of the landline.”
Corporates and Financial Institutions (FIs) must now accelerate all efforts to develop and implement a payments modernization strategy. With an effective date of September 30, 2025, for this executive order, there is no time to waste. FIs will need to implement a variety of faster payments solutions to meet the needs outlined in the executive order, and corporates are on notice that the United States will be rapidly deploying an array of modern payments that can serve their needs and help reduce expenses.
“This is the tipping point moment many of us have been waiting for,” continued Luhtanen. “Joining the FPC to quickly get up to speed on the various forms of payments that will be required by the executive order, learn how your organization can leverage this new technology, and make the key contacts throughout the payments ecosystem that you can only make at the FPC will be critical. No other payment industry organization offers the diversity or the level of expertise that will be found in our membership – we offer both.”
For more information on the FPC, its current work efforts or to join, visit FasterPaymentsCouncil.org.
Contact:
Elizabeth Grice
U.S. Faster Payments Council
720-737-7368
egrice@fasterpaymentscouncil.org
About the U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC)
The FPC is an industry-led membership organization whose vision is 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 uses 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.