The act essentially removes an important barrier to innovation and frees depository institutions to apply new technologies and market-based ideas to traditional check-clearing activities. Safety and confidence. Safety and confidence are the other basic public-policy objectives for payments systems. Sound designs, rules, and risk-management practices promote the safety of payments for users and their financial institutions.
Central banks have an ongoing interest in the safety and integrity of payments systems, because they provide the infrastructure for transferring money in the economy. Public confidence in the payments system is a closely related concern. As I noted earlier, confidence in the integrity of our basic paper payment instruments and payments systems was built up over a very long period of time.