The Federal Reserve said in a press conference today that they are launching a Faster Payments System by 2023 to compete with the private system known as The Clearning House(TCH). Smaller banks feared that since The Clearing House is owned by the largest banks that they would be at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to payments and would(along with retailers) feel better if the Fed itself operates a faster payments scheme. It seems to revolve around the Fed holding a large balance of dollars and using that as a pre-funded account to do instant payments and settlements and this would eliminate the need for pre-funded accounts for domestic payments by the banks themselves.
