Our cloud-first design, unique among central bank instant payment services, positions us for the future by enabling not only the  Lael Brainard, “Supporting Fast Payments for All” (remarks at the Fed Payments Improvement Community Forum, Chicago, October 3, 2018), https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/brainard20181003a.htm; Esther George, “From Then to FedNow: Payments Innovation and the Federal Reserve,” Policy Perspectives (Kansas City: Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, December 18, 2020), https://www.kansascityfed.org/Research/documents/7574/policy_perspectives_12_1_20_v5.pdf.
3 Lael Brainard, “The Future of Retail Payments in the United States” (remarks at the FedNow Service Webinar, Washington, D.C., via webcast, August 6, 2020), https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/brainard20200806a.htm. 2  -3throughput and scalability required for high-volume retail transactions but also broad geographic points of resiliency to ensure continuous service.