PROPOSAL TO REMOVE BARRIERS TO ELECTRONIC CHECK PRESENTMENT.

A Federal Reserve System committee outlined on September 7, 2000, a series of cooperative steps the Federal Reserve and the private sector can take to remove barriers to the development of electronic check presentment in the United States.

The steps were identified at a workshop conducted by the Payments System Development Committee on June 29 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The actions, described in a short paper distributed in September to workshop participants, include the following:

* Further consideration of legal changes that would reduce legal barriers to the electronic collection or return of check while protecting the rights of consumers or others who wish to receive paper checks

* Further efforts to develop and implement technical standards for exchanging electronic or paper substitutes for checks

* Follow-up discussions between the Federal Reserve and the banking industry on the business case for electronic check presentment

* Discussions of new operational concepts involving electronic check presentment and check imaging and of potential ways to test the concepts

* Preparation of educational materials to inform depository institutions and the public about electronic check presentment.

The co-chairs of the committee, Board Vice Chairman Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., and Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Cathy E. Minehan, emphasized that the initiatives described in the paper were cooperative steps the Federal Reserve can take with the private sector. Some of the ideas will be refined further as the initiatives proceed, they said.

The formation of the committee was announced in July 1999. The other members are Governor Edward W. Kelley, Jr., of the Federal Reserve Board, and First Vice President Jamie B. Stewart, Jr., of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. First Vice President Patrick K. Barron, of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, is a liaison to the committee from the System's Retail Payments Office.