Business Benefits of B2B Instant Payments Work Group Signup Form

This work group meets every other Wednesday at 10:00am CT.

Mission & Scope

Accelerate the adoption of instant payments for businesses by addressing key challenges and identifying best practices with B2B Instant Payments.

Objectives & Goals

• Understand the needs and concerns of small, medium, and large businesses regarding B2B instant payments adoption.
• Identify best practices and use cases for implementing B2B instant payments in different business scenarios.
• Develop educational materials that address adoption challenges and benefits of B2B instant payments.
• Engage key stakeholders within the payments ecosystem to facilitate engagement and understanding.
• Complement existing initatives like the Business Payments Coalition's and The Clearing House's work by integrating B2B instant payments considerations.

Deliverables

• Reports and case studies on successful B2B instant payments implementations by financial institutions and/or businesses.
• Educational webinars on collaboration and best practices for key B2B stakeholders (financial institutions, technology providers, small/medium/large businesses, and trade associations) and to overcome challenges in the adoption of B2B instant payments.
• eBook and blogs outlining key issues and benefits of B2B instant payments for businesses. Examples could include addressing potential cannibalization concerns (e.g., overlap with existing payment methods), and comparing its benefits to other payment methods (e.g., virtual cards, ACH, wire, check).

Membership Criteria

Deep understanding of the B2B payments industry, which may include faster payments (instant, immediate, real-time, push to card and same day ACH), AP/AR automation, real-time treasury, and e-invoicing. Representatives from financial institutions, payment processors, technology providers, business across industries (small, medium, and large as well as end users), and relevant trade associations.

Submit

Cross-Border Payments Work Group Signup Form

This work group meets every other Tuesday at 11:00am CT.

Mission & Scope

Engage FPC member organizations currently working on cross-border payments. Gather information/input on various models and the variety of use cases where there is a need or desire by consumers and businesses for real time payments across borders. Review and coordinate with other FPC Work Groups to determine what is needed to align the currently disparate local faster payment systems such that the long-term goal of cross-border interoperability may be achieved.

Objectives & Goals

Identify what the industry needs to do in the cross-border space to create the environment necessary for enhanced faster cross-border payments.

• Provide industry awareness on emerging faster payments cross-border initiatives and their potential impact on existing payment channels, correspondent relationships, and clearing and settlement finality.
• Identify and prioritize use cases, user experience, and corridors to study and understand, assess different types of cross-border payments, and needs by consumers and businesses for faster cross-border payments.
• The scope of our examination and work products will cover a broad range of topics including, but not limited to: E2E process flows (data and funds), payment orchestration platforms, technical infrastructure, currency conversion, fintech solutions, clearing and settlement models, liquidity and reserve requirementes, etc. Laws and regulations are out of scope.
• Review U.S. and global models that could potentially be put in place for real-time cross-border payments.
• Identify strengths and gaps of current models or emerging options.
• Identify challenges/issues in both inbound and outbound payments.
• Identify lessons learned and barriers to resolve these challenges/issues.
• Identify other working groups and global governing bodies that can be leveraged for input and action.

Deliverables & Timeframes

The Group's output will be delivered in phases with incremental industry resources—including but not limited to webinars, presentations, research reports, short form blogs, or opinion pieces—covering the following:

• A wide range of information outlining the current state of cross-border payments, including any existing regulations, challenges, and opportunities.
• Insights for the industry on upcoming trends and developments of new payment methods supporting cross-border faster payments including the benefits, risks, and other considerations for new payment methods.
• Descriptions of the cross-border payments environment including the existing and emerging opportunities to enhance the current landscape with a view to the next 12 to 24 months (Q4 2025 - Q4 2026).
• Recommendations to the FPC community on how to continually monitor ongoing and new initiatives in the cross-border space with an emphasis on providing valuable information which directly contributes to the adoption and ubiquity of cross-border payments in the U.S. market.

Membership Criteria

Technical Expertise preferred in managing, implementing, developing, or using cross border transactions, including ACH and debit/credit. Ability to synthesize research into summary findings. Open to representatives from all segments, but ideal to have representatives from financial institutions, technology providers, and end users, at a minimum.

Submit

Digital Assets in the Financial Industry Work Group Signup Form

This work group meets every other Thursday at 10:30am CT.

Mission & Scope

Discuss and advise on the usage of digital assets related to the financial services industry, focusing specifically on payments made with digital funds – central bank digital currency (CBDC), regulated liabilities, and stablecoins. Review the advantages (and disadvantages) of using digital assets in conjunction with faster payments to identify potential benefits, models for implementation, and use cases to instantaneously transact and transfer digital funds within the U.S. Boundaries on the scope of effort are limited to the movement and storage of digital assets that use faster payments to purchase digital funds or to pay with digital funds, and it excludes investments. The Digital Asset Work Group will collaborate with Cross-Border Payments and Fraud Work Groups, as well as other FPC groups in subject areas that overlap.

Objectives & Goals

1. Definition of Digital Assets

• Identify the sub-categories and types of digital assets.
• Define how faster payments can interoperate and live alongside digital assets with a focus on benefits, risks, high value use cases, and timing expectations.

2. Digital Assets to Support Faster Payments 

• Identify the major opportunities and challenges in supporting faster payments that are gaining momentum and are unique to digital assets. 
• Identify the enabling technology and operationalization of digital assets needed to implement.

3. Reach and Expanded Usage of Digital Assets

• Identify emerging opportunities for various stakeholders, including traditional financial service organizations and fintech solution providers, to begin planning for the use of stablecoins and other digital assets as a service offering.
• Focus on implementation efforts by various stakeholder market segments to expand the reach of digital assets by leveraging blockchain and distributed ledger technology.
• Examine points of intersection with other FPC work groups to foster interconnectivity and interoperability of digital assets.

Deliverables

Blogs, white papers, webinars, and briefing documents summarizing research findings that focus on disrupters and maturity, and considerations for the financial industry as they scale the adoption of digital assets for faster payments. Presented in education sessions and opinions on the subject.

• Insights on industry developments and emerging opportunities in the digital assets payments environment, focusing on a prioritized view of market segmentation adoption, and emphasis on the use of distributed ledger technology and fintech solutions.
• Monitor the development of industry standards and the regulatory environment of digital assets faster payments with a view to the next 12 to 24 months (2Q 2025 – 2Q 2027).

Ongoing updates and recommendations to the FPC community on ways to expand the reach of the digital assets faster payments initiative, considering pressing circumstances and the activities in the global market.

Membership Criteria

Background or strong interest/enthusiasm in digital assets in the financial industry, or experience with faster payments in a digital currency environment would be helpful. Prefer to have broad representation from industry segments including financial institutions, business end-users, payment network operators, payment processors, and consumer groups. 

Submit

Education and Awareness Work Group Signup Form

This work group meets every other Wednesday at 1:00pm CT.

Mission & Scope

Develop an educational and awareness program to foster better understanding of faster payments and confidence among providers and users, ultimately driving adoption and transaction volumes toward the industry goal of ubiquity.

Objectives & Goals

The work group will determine the best method to expand the cross-solution education and awareness program that aligns with the FPC's higher level strategies and priorities of reach, experience, and trust.

The work group will include researching existing and developing additional educational materials according to audience (consumer and business end-users, financial institutions, other service providers, etc.) to identify gaps and opportunities for faster payments information; determining opportunities for collaboration/partnerships with existing organizations and other FPC work groups; establishing a continuous assessment to ensure education and awareness materials are produced in an efficient manner; reaching the intended audiences through the FPC Knowledge Center with a focus on glossary of terms, FAQs, and use cases; and helping increase market understanding and drive adoption of faster payments.

The objectives will include the following:

• Outreach: Recommend the best types, channels, and methods of communication to educate, train, and reach internal and external audiences, including consumers and businesses.
• Production: Produce high quality deliverables such as videos, presentation materials, infographics, and other forms of effective communication that address the outreach objectives. 
• Maintenance: Expand and maintain content in the EAWG Knowledge Center with a focus on the glossary terms, FAQs, and use cases.

Deliverables

• Evaluate current educational materials to identify gaps in addressing specific audience needs. Ensure the Glossary of Terms, FAQs, and Use Cases in the Knowledge Center remain up to date and relevant and regularly review and update all key industry resources to maintain the overall quality and usefulness of the educational content.
• Create new educational content, develop a variety of content types, such as infographics, videos, webinars, virtual education forums, and interactive tools. (2025)
  
• Identify potential collaboration opportunities with existing stakeholders and FPC work groups to ensure alignment and avoid duplication of efforts. (2025)
• Develop and implement feedback mechanisms (e.g., surveys, feedback forms, stakeholder interviews) to gather qualitative and quantitative data on the usefulness and impact of EAWG educational resources and use this data to continuously improve future content and delivery methods.

Membership Criteria

A background or strong interest in developing and producing educational materials and industry outreach resources for the payments industry is desired. Participating members should cover a broad representation from industry segments including financial institutions, end-users, payment network operators, fintechs, and consumer groups. 

Submit

Exception Resolution for Account-Based Payments Work Group Form

Mission & Scope

Develop recommendations and best practices for exception resolution, which includes disputes, scams, fraud, and questions [or customer inquiries], specific to account-based payments, including ACH and instant payments. The work group aims to provide a framework for exception management practices, to enhance consumer protections, in turn fostering greater industry adoption of such payments. The work group will analyze and incorporate into its output best practices from international instant payment networks and domestic networks. The objective is for this work group’s deliverable(s) to serve as an input for the networks that support account-based payments to leverage into their own exception resolution practices.

Objectives & Goals

• Identify and address the gaps in consumer protections within the current account-based payment networks, starting with instant payments.
  
• Develop a framework for managing and resolving customer exceptions. 
• Ensure that the proposed exception management practices are adaptable to a broad variety of account-based payment use cases.

Deliverables & Timeframes

• Comprehensive industry resource: exception resolution research, findings, and best practice recommendations for account-based payments. The first deliverable shall apply to the instant payment networks, with other irrevocable payment methods and ACH to follow at a later stage. Wires will be excluded for purposes of this Work Group.
• Exception Resolution Foundational Principles and Guidelines: Comprehensive set of practices and recommendations detailing expected outcomes for various types of disputes, starting with their application to instant payment networks.
• Examine best practices related to optimizing directory models to reduce friction in the payment value chain and increase adoption of faster payments.
• Estimated Timeframe (9 months following work group kick off):
  • Initial Research and Analysis: Phase 1 (3 months)
  • Stakeholder Engagement and Feedback: Phase 2 (2 months)
  • Drafting Framework: Phase 3 (2 months)
  • Review and Finalization: Phase 4 (2 months)
• Offer recommendations for the technical enablement and execution of these practices. 

Membership Criteria

Representatives from financial institutions, payment processors, technology providers, business end users, networks, and relevant trade associations. Familiarity with existing domestic and international exception and dispute resolution processes is preferred.

Submit

Faster Payments User Experience Work Group Charter

Mission & Scope

Accelerate the adoption of faster payments by enabling functional user experiences. We aim to mitigate inconsistent user experiences by encouraging stakeholders to collaborate more effectively to ensure that the evolving faster payments landscape remains accessible, efficient, ubiquitous, and scalable for all end users.

Objectives & Goals

• Promote consistent user experience standards and payment interface best practices. This work group will collaborate with established standards-setting bodies (such as ASC X9) to drive adoption, simplify integration, and ensure secure, inclusive access to faster payments.
  
• Equip participants of the faster payments ecosystem with guidance for implementing seamless, functional user experiences.
• Clarify roles and expectations between financial institutions, technology providers, and consumer-facing solutions in the faster payments ecosystem.
• Serve as a conduit to help participants in the faster payments ecosystem leverage tools, services, and technologies that foster a consistent, functional user experience.

Deliverables & Timeframes

The Work Group’s output will be delivered through incremental industry resources, including webinars, research reports, short-form articles, blogs, infographics, and opinion pieces on the following:

• Support the development and implementation of UX frameworks to foster adoption and interoperability. 
• Promote standards alignment and best practices for payment interfaces (APIs, aliases, tokenization, QR codes). 
  
• Simplify UX across diverse payment use cases from merchant transactions to consumer bill pay.
• Develop faster payments end-to-end UX models that identify pain points and opportunities for seamless integration.
• Develop stakeholder education to improve industry understanding of consumer-facing aspects of faster payments.
• Identify and share best practices from successful faster payments use cases.
• Conduct gap analysis on faster payments UX and interface standards and recommend improvements.
• Develop UX functionality, in collaboration with the Fraud Work Group, to prevent or mitigate fraud and errors while ensuring a smooth payor experience.
• Define and develop the use of advanced capabilities (biometrics, behavioral analytics, AI) to enhance ease and security in UX and to ensure flows are efficient and user friendly for the payor.

Membership Criteria

Individuals with a strong background or interest in enhancing the user experience for faster payments. Prefer members that bring expertise from diverse areas such as user experience design, product and technology development, consumer-centric organizations, and fraud and risk management. We also seek broad representation across industry segments including financial institutions, business end-users, payment network operators, technology providers, and consumer groups.

Submit

Financial Inclusion Work Group Signup Form

This work group meets every other Wednesday at 12:00pm CT.

Mission & Scope

Mission is to provide a blueprint for leveraging faster payments to accelerate access to the financial system for unbanked and underserved Americans. By focusing on the needs and experiences of individuals and small businesses, we aim to empower these communities with equal access to payments.  Our scope specifically targets not only the unbanked and underserved consumers but also includes small businesses across the United States, fostering inclusivity and financial empowerment.

Objectives & Goals

• Utilize new data from relevant and topical sources to ensure full understanding of the continuing needs of unbanked and underserved consumers and small businesses.
• Understand how information, use cases and human stories can be conveyed to Financial Institutions to inspire them to be part of the solution set, within the scope of faster payments.
• Champion ways in which Financial Institutions, Fintechs, and alternative financial services can work together for more inclusive payment transactions, instant payments, and accessibility.
• Identify opportunities and benefits for the industry as a whole, to serve this segment of the economy directly or indirectly through partners.
• Inform relevant stakeholders of how faster payments adoption is part of a holistic approach to advancing financial inclusion in the United States by mitigating some or all the issues, concerns, and needs of unbanked and underserved consumers and small businesses.

Deliverables & Timeframe

The Financial Inclusion Work Group’s output will be delivered in phases. Incremental industry resources will be in the forms of town halls, research reports, short form/blogs/infographics, and/or opinion pieces on the following:

• A wide range of information outlining the current state of Financial Inclusion, where are FI’s working towards the adoption of faster payments including access to technology, challenges, and opportunities. Deliverable development in 2024, deliverable complete and available to the industry, target is mid-2025.
• The potential role of digital assets in expanding financial inclusivity is significant. Collaborative efforts are essential, and in 2024, we plan to work closely with the Digital Assets Work Group (DAWG) and other industry resources to drive this initiative. Deliverable complete and available to industry early 2025.
• Recommendations to the FPC community on how to continually monitor ongoing and new initiatives in the realm of faster payments to ensure Financial Inclusion. Deliverable development in 2024, incremental deliverables completed in phases throughout 2025.

Membership Criteria

Those with direct or indirect experience in this are would be primary contributors. Those planning to work with underserved or are just interested to learn more about this segment of the economy would also be welcome. Financial Institutions, FinTechs, companies with demonstrated track record, that are passionate about financial equality or what to learn more about this segment of the economy and/or mission alignment in providing products and service or advocacy, coaching, and/or education for the unbanked.

Submit

Fraud and Scam Mitigation for Faster Payments Work Group Signup Form

This work group meets every other Thursday at 1:00pm CT.

Mission & Scope

The Fraud and Scam Mitigation Work Group’s mission is to focus on collectively addressing fraud and scam issues involving faster payments, which can affect fundamental trust in faster payment systems and require heightened or different operational controls, risk management, and end-user education.

Objectives & Goals

• Increase awareness and understanding of faster payments fraud and scams, including detection best practices, tools, and mitigation approaches.
• Share insights and foster information exchange on fraud and scams across payments stakeholders and existing forums, both in the U.S. and internationally.
• Enhance cross-industry coordination and collective action to address fraud and scam risks and trust-related challenges in faster payments.
• Identify gaps, issues, and opportunities in fraud and scam prevention, detection, and mitigation, including alignment across end users and payment system participants.
• Leverage data, analysis, and techniques that provide broad benefits for fraud and scam detection and prevention.
• Develop guidelines, recommendations, and resources to strengthen consumer protection and support fraud and scam risk management.

Deliverables & Timeframes

The Group can produce whitepapers, case studies, workshops, conference sessions, and other resources to educate financial institutions and other stakeholders on the following:

2025-2026 Deliverables

• Information Sharing: Develop an inventory or framework for fraud and scam information-sharing forums. Assess AI’s role to organize and interpret fraud and scam data. Provide insights on how capabilities can enhance data sharing and industry collaboration.
• Use Case Activation: Identify beneficial data, analytics, and techniques for fraud and scam information sharing that maximize industry benefit and adoption through stakeholder outreach.
• Trust & Accessibility: Develop recommendations to address trust-related challenges in a 24x7 faster payments environment and propose improvements to enhance accessibility and adoption of fraud and scam detection tools.
• Education: Develop targeted educational resources for financial institutions and technology providers. Summarize best practices for fraud and scam reporting and dispute resolution (including international examples). Provide recommendations for U.S. improvements.

Future Deliverables

• Prevention and Mitigation: Catalog mechanisms, controls, and best practices to prevent and mitigate fraud and scams in faster payments.

• Law and Regulation: Review current laws and regulations for effectiveness in addressing faster payments fraud and scams, and explore improvements, including clarifying roles of law enforcement, financial institutions, and other stakeholders.
• Payment Networks: Review payment network rules and their role in fraud and scam detection and mitigation and consider ways to improve.

Membership Criteria

Individuals with a background or strong interest in faster payments fraud and scams. Prefer to have broad representation from industry segments including financial institutions, business end-users, payment network operators, payment processors, and consumer groups.

Submit

Instant Payments Data Optimization
Work Group Charter

Mission & Scope

Facilitate a collaborative effort among financial institutions, service providers, and payments associations to establish and promote best practices for data accuracy in instant payments, ensuring a smooth and secure transition from traditional to instant payments.

Objectives & Goals

• Identify and mitigate data challenges including the use of member IDs, outdated account information, and incorrect identifiers, across instant payment transactions.
• Facilitate collaboration to develop and implement solutions that address both current "bandaid" fixes in traditional payments and prevent new issues from arising while adopting instant payments.
• Address the unique challenges of credit unions and community banks, and their use of member IDs for their customers’ access to instant payments. 
• Analyze current practices in traditional payments to identify best practices for instant payments.
• Identify and address the root causes of data inaccuracies, including the sources of incorrect information (e.g., checkbook use, reliance on member IDs).
• Provide guidance and resources to educate stakeholders on best practices for data accuracy in instant payments

Deliverables & Timeframes

• Investigate the root causes of data challenges in instant payments by identifying the sources of incorrect information and analyzing systemic issues within payment processes.
• Establish and prioritize ongoing efforts of the work group and benefit instant payments ecosystem including communication channels (e.g., forums and surveys) to gather feedback. Continuously monitor industry developments and refine best practices to maintain relevancy and effectiveness.
• Evaluate temporary solutions ("bandaids") used in traditional payments to address data inaccuracies and recommend improvements and best practices for short-term mitigation in instant payments.
• Develop a toolkit of best practices for ensuring data accuracy in instant payments that address the unique challenges faced by credit unions and community banks.
•  Create targeted educational materials, such as webinars and case studies, tailored to the specific needs of financial institutions, service providers, payments associations, credit unions, and community banks. These resources will incorporate insights from ‘voice of the customer’ from real-world challenges and demonstrate the business case for adopting recommended improvements within instant payments.

Membership Criteria

Members with an understanding of either the strategic implications of data quality in payments or hands-on experience with operational challenges related to data anomalies, customer experience in digital flows, and internal processes that impact data accuracy. Experience in instant payments, payment networks, and financial messaging. Data analysis skills and ability to develop solutions for data optimization. Representation from a wide range of stakeholders (financial institutions, payment processors, technology providers, fintechs, industry associations). Experience in cross-functional projects and a commitment to actionable outcomes for the benefit of the payments industry.

Submit

Operational Considerations for Instant and Immediate Payments Work Group Signup Form

This work group meets every other Wednesday at 10:00am CT.

Mission & Scope

To provide financial institutions with practical guideposts for effectively managing operational changes, including process adaptation, redesign, and staffing adjustments, necessary for successful adoption of instant and immediate payments. The scope of this work group focuses on internal bank operations that necessitate change to effectively implement and manage instant and immediate payments, encompassing transaction processing, risk management, customer service, and compliance.    

Objectives & Goals

• Establish critical touch points in the value chain to enhance operational efficiency, manage risk, ensure compliance, and foster a positive customer experience.
• Educate financial institutions on “real-life” operations in a 24/7/365 environment and provide guidelines that will help sustain or accelerate the momentum of adopting instant and immediate payments processes.
• Explore case studies and relevant anchors applied by financial institutions that have helped sustain an effective operation once instant and immediate payments are embedded in the business model.
• Explore existing resources or tools related to instant and immediate payments operations.
• Provide resources to inform and provide insights for stakeholders to effectively manage bank operations for instant and immediate payments.
• Collaborate with other FPC work groups to integrate operational considerations perspectives across all FPC initiatives.

Deliverables

The work group will produce whitepapers, case studies, workshops, conference sessions, and other resources to deliver guidelines to financial institutions for immediate and instant payments. These deliverables will leverage developed guidelines to assist, aid, and educate financial institutions for operational readiness and advancement. Key considerations that will inform and complement their business operations include:          

• Whitepapers will serve as foundational educational resources built upon developed guidelines, these papers will contain a culmination of research and insights on best practices in the industry. They will inform financial institutions on managing the coexistence and integration of payment rails to sustain a new immediate and instant payments infrastructure, providing actionable knowledge for operational readiness through examples of best practices.
• The following considerations, derived from and embedded within the guidelines developed, will be assessed as part of the framework:
  • Recommend operational models that include the payment flow along with roles and responsibilities of both the sending and receiving institutions, ensuring clear understanding and effective implementation.
  • Explore the best practices for liquidity management, reconciliation, dispute, exception processing, and 24/7 accountholder service needs, facilitating seamless and reliable operations.
  • Raise awareness of regulations and compliance considerations that affect instant and immediate payments, providing key education for navigating the regulatory landscape.
  • Assess risk management practices for fraud and security as it relates transaction processing and resolving exceptions, aiding in the accessibility of detection tools.
• Encourage continued action and practical application of the guidelines, by exploring case studies, workshops, and conference sessions to drive operational advancement.

Membership Criteria

Background or strong interest/enthusiasm in bank operations, developing educational materials, and experience with instant or immediate payments desired. Prefer to have broad representation from industry segments including financial institutions, payment network operators, payment processors, and consumer groups.

Submit

Real-Time Recurring Work Group Signup Form

This work group meets every other Tuesday at 3:00pm CT.

Mission & Scope

Promote the development and adoption of real-time recurring payment solutions to be used by business end-users and financial institutions.  Included in the scope of this mission is the development of use cases relating to: ecommerce recurring, utility payments, investment account funding, other forms of recurring billing.  Excluded in this scope are adhoc one-time payments or payments where the customer is expected to initiate or be directly involved with each transaction.

Objectives & Goals

This work group will develop a real-time recurring workflow for faster payments that can be used in any applicable use case.  We will identify current approaches, applicable uses cases, best practices, and implementation guidance documentation.  Publishing the results that can be used by the faster payments community.

Deliverables & Timeframe

Address Fraud and Risk concerns around real-time recurring payments for merchants as well as large and small financial institutions; hone-on on authentication and visit irrevocability concerns, leveraging analysis performed by other FPC work groups (e.g., Fraud, Directory Models, API) as applicable.

• Generate areas of research through lens of recurring faster payments.
  • Current pain points, channel orientation.
  • Real-time recurring payment use case walk through, focusing on authentication requirements from the user perspective.
  • Market drivers for authentication and need for authentication in real-time recurring payments.
  • Consumer and merchant liability concerns.
  • Emerging scheme rules as they relate to addressing risk for real-time recurring payments.
• Output deliverable (2023) - Published opinion piece based on secondary research and FPC work group members experiences.

Membership Criteria

Membership should represent a variety of industries, requiring a background and understanding in billing/payment processes. Representation will be needed from merchant/end-users along with bank and financial institutions. Operators of faster payments systems including TCH and the Federal Reserve are also encouraged to participate. Members should have the ability to pull technical SMEs within their organization, when needed.

Submit