Updates on the Economy and the Federal Reserve’s Payments System Improvement Initiative 03-30-2017 Tenth Annual Risk Conference: “Promise and Peril: Managing the Uncertainty of Rapid Innovation and a Changing Economy”, Co-hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and DePaul University’s Center for Financial Services, Chicago, IL

Technological change is very apparent in the payments system. This morning, I will focus a large portion of my remarks on an initiative that the Federal Reserve is leading to address the rapidly changing landscape in the payments industry in the U.S. This initiative is a collaborative effort between the Fed and a broad array of private-sector participants, and aims to improve the speed, efficiency, security, and ubiquity of the U.S. payments system. I am happy to say that the effort has made significant progress and that several important milestones will be reached this year. But before I turn to payments, it behooves me to say a little bit about the economy in which the payments system plays such an important role. I should add that what I say today about payments and about the economy are my own views and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve System or my colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee.