The Federal Reserve works actively with the private sector to foster an innovative payments industry. The Federal Reserve's Payments System Development Committee helps facilitate these efforts.

Important activities of the committee are:

• To identify strategies for enhancing the long-term efficiency of the retail payments system
• To identify barriers to innovation and address those barriers where possible
• To monitor market developments
• To conduct workshops and forums that encourage focused discussions with the private sector

The committee's current areas of concentration include:

• Electronic check truncation and presentment
• Efforts to reduce legal and regulatory barriers to innovation
• Technical standards
• Future clearing and settlement systems to support electronic commerce