According to the Federal Reserve, the industry across our land has been mostly left alone for the private sector. In their words, “The Federal Reserve recognized that the success of the payments industry has been largely driven by private industry and market forces, with little government direction necessary. However, new technologies and processes impacting payments today could use the guiding hand of government, according to the Fed.”
In other words, they think they can speed things up for those of us already taking care of business.
They have identified eight weaknesses in the payment stream:
- Lack of payment options.
- Lack of instant payment capabilities.
- Little to no participation in mobile wallets.
- Little to no participation in consumer-directed features.
- Very slow cross-border payments.
- Digital wallets have little choices and/or visibility for consumers.
- Complex payment systems are used by larger businesses.
- Consumers fear adopting new payments with electronics.
It’s of little to no use
The consumer is going to do what they feel safe doing. It won’t matter what the Federal Reserve has an opinion on. It’s our choice and the reason it’s our choice is because of free enterprise. There is little to no use for the Federal Reserve to stick their neck into things that they don’t need to concern themselves with.
Their desire
They have a ten-year plan to assist the public in a collective and collaborative system. Would that be like Obamacare? They want changes in our person-to-person money transfers and improvements in real-time payments.
The only thing that makes sense out of their plan is the reduction in the costs. Everyone wants to see a little more go into their pockets, and a little less to the middle man. But, our system is doing just fine and we really need less involvement by a lot of our government agencies. Too much of a good thing is just too much.
We are just fine
When the government is broken, the public finds a way to fix it. When a subway is broken, again the public finds a way to fix it. When someone’s credit is broken, they find a way to fix it. It’s just the same when they need a bad credit merchant account. In order to find their way to getting accepted, they go fix their credit.
Very little is fixed with the government involved. We saw that with FEMA and New Orleans, as well as the flooding in New York City and New Jersey. Most of the fixing came from the public. It took a long list of red tape before things were repaired.
So don’t rely on the Federal Reserve to do the right thing. Take on the system and fix it yourself. It’s really the only FREE thing to do. Don’t let our system be taken away.