In the end, the goals are to reduce the social cost of the payment system and to improve the technical foundation for providing financial services. The Payments System Development Committee also is working on various legal and regulatory issues, standards, and the future of clearing and settlement.
In the regulatory area, for example, the committee has encouraged the Board's staff to revise the commentary to Regulation E, which implements the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, to reduce residual barriers to electronic innovations. Revisions last March helped clarify the legal status of the various “check conversion” projects that I noted earlier.