Expanding Access to Payments: Domestic and Cross-Border Challenges and Opportunities

The Treasury Department is the executive agency responsible for promoting economic prosperity and ensuring the financial security of the United States. Expanding equitable access to payments in a safe and responsible manner is a key policy objective for the Department.  The Department recently published a report on money and payments, which observes that despite substantial strengths, certain legacy payment systems can be slow, difficult to adapt, and challenging for some consumers and businesses to access. Domestically, a substantial number of American households are currently unbanked or underbanked.  From a cross-border perspective, making payments internationally can be especially slow and costly.  The report concludes that the United States needs to continue to innovate in support of its policy objectives, and the Department remains focused on these issues. The goal of the project is to analyze options for expanding access to payments, focusing on both domestic and cross-border payments.