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Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., expressed concern to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell over the delay in implementing a real-time payment system in a letter Tuesday and asked him a series of questions pertaining to the legislative and regulatory needs to get the system underway.

"The United States' outdated payment system imposes significant and unnecessary costs on Americans, leading consumers to incur billions of dollars a year in fees associated with the delayed movement of funds," he wrote.

Van Hollen asked Powell what regulatory, legislative and industry actions are needed for the Fed to implement real-time payments, and if the Fed will commit to acting on the report released by the Faster Payments Task Force, among other questions. Van Hollen expects a response on these questions by Sept. 11.

NAFCU served on the both the Fed's Faster Payments and Secure Payments Task Forces, which were formed as a part of the Fed's "Strategies for Improving the U.S. Payment System." The association has encouraged the Fed, through meetings and letters, to play an operational role in a future, faster payments system.

Most recently, NAFCU commented on a proposal to create a nonprofit association – the U.S. Faster Payments Council – that would coordinate efforts to achieve interoperability and broad adoption of faster payment solutions. The goal of this council is to facilitate the creation of a ubiquitous, faster payments system in 2020 in which Americans can conduct their payments safely and securely anywhere and at any time. The council would also develop education and advocacy components to inform regulators of specific challenges.