The U.S. Federal Reserve Bank has been working hard in the recent past to speed up payment processing. Earlier in August, a Fed task force on the matter elected a committee that will spearhead the multi-year process. The 19 member committee represents various parts of the diverse payment ecosystem, bringing together corporations such as Wal-Mart and payment innovators such as Ripple Labs and Dwolla. Here is a quick summary of all the 13 members;
- Wanda Chambers, Suncoast Credit Union – the Vice President of payments at the Suncoast Credit Union, Wanda has been involved in the Fed task force since 2013.
- Mitch Christensen, Wells Fargo – Mitch is the VP of payments at Wells Fargo, one of the earliest adopters of the enterprise approach.
- John Drechny, Wal-Mart – Drechny is responsible for acquiring relationships and building customer networks and also plays a big role in processing of electronic payments at Wal-Mart.
- Janet Estep, NACHA – Estep is the President and CEO at the Washington based trade group – NACHA.
- Peter Gordon, FIS – Gordon is Senior VP of payment network solutions at FIS – a payment technology company.
- Mark Keeling, The Bankers Bank – Keeling is currently Chief Operating Officer at Bankers Bank. He has vast experience having worked at several different organizations.
- Jordan Lampe, Dwolla – Communications Director at Dwolla, Lampe works mainly around mobile and online payments.
- Steve Ledford, The Clearing House – Ledford is the current CEO at The Clearing House. He has more than 30 years experience in the payment industry.
- Bob Steen, Bridge Community Bank – known as one of the very first proponents of speeding up bank transfers, Steen is the CEO of Bridge Community Bank.
- Christina Tetreault, Consumers Union – Christina Tetreault works at Consumers Union as a staff attorney of the Financial Services Program. She takes particular interest in emerging payment solutions such as high risk merchant accounts and BitCoin.
- Thomas Rea, U.S. Bank – Rea is executive VP and Manager of U.S. Bancorp’s transactions processing division. He has extensive experience in the payments industry.
- Susan Weinstock – Weinstock is the director of consumer banking at Pew Charitable Trusts. She has also previously held positions at the Consumer Federation of America and AARP.
- Ryan Zagone, Ripple Labs – Last but not least, Zagone is head of research at Ripple Labs and the key figure behind Ripple protocol. He brings extensive tech knowledge to the team.