WASHINGTON — A group of House and Senate Democrats introduced a bill that would require the Federal Reserve to create a real-time payments system.
The Payments Modernization Act, introduced in the Senate by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said the central bank has been moving too slowly to determine whether to develop its own payments system, so the bill would make that decision for them.
“I’ve pushed the Federal Reserve to develop a system that has the necessary guardrails, but progress there has been too slow,” Van Hollen said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who co-sponsored the Senate bill, said the purpose of the legislation is to ensure more people — particularly low-income Americans — have access to their money when they need it.