We wanted to understand fully the dynamics of the payments system and the changes that the industry envisions over the next five to ten years, as well as the reasoning behind the varying views about the Federal Reserve’s payments activities.
Thus, the committee developed a series of hypothetical scenarios for Federal Reserve participation in the retail payments system that we discussed with industry representatives in a series of forums that were conducted last May and June. Some of you may have attended one of those forums. In total, we held ten national and fifty-two regional forums.