I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3939 
To require the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to carry 
out a quantitative impact study of any proposed real-time payment sys-
tem under the Faster Payments Initiative before implementing such 
system. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 24, 2019 
Mr. BUDD introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To require the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 
System to carry out a quantitative impact study of any 
proposed real-time payment system under the Faster 
Payments Initiative before implementing such system. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. QUANTITATIVE IMPACT STUDY REQUIREMENT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Board of Governors of the 
Federal Reserve System may not take any steps to de-
velop, build, or otherwise implement any proposed real- 
time payment system or any component thereof (including 
a settlement service, liquidity management service, or aux-
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iliary services) under the Faster Payments Initiative until 
after the end of the 1-year period beginning on the date 
that the Board of Governors issues a detailed report to 
the Congress on a comprehensive study of the proposed 
real-time payment system that includes a quantitative im-
pact component. 
(b) CONTENTS
OF STUDY.—The study described 
under subsection (a) shall include the following: 
(1) Any cybersecurity, privacy concerns, or 
other risks associated with the Federal government 
receiving and managing new transaction-level infor-
mation regarding millions of American citizens, in-
cluding a threat assessment. 
(2) Whether the Board of Governors would be 
subject to privacy and security laws and regulations 
such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the 
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, like other payment proc-
essors. 
(3) Where customer information would be 
stored. 
(4) Who would oversee such information. 
(5) Whether the Board of Governors would cre-
ate a database to view customer transactions. 
(6) An analysis of whether the private sector 
can provide the system or achieve the objectives of 
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the system with reasonable effectiveness, scope, and 
equity. 
(7) Whether the Board of Governors has con-
cluded that the private sector cannot achieve the ob-
jectives that the Board of Governors seeks to achieve 
with the system. 
(8) The potential adverse consequences to the 
private sector in the short term and the long if the 
Board of Governors offers the system. 
(9) Whether the Board of Governors could 
achieve the Board’s objectives without offering the 
system, but rather by making changes to its current 
infrastructure, for example by expanding the oper-
ating hours of the National Settlement Service or 
enhancing the Automated Clearing House’s same- 
day payment capabilities or modernizing the Auto-
mated Clearing House to serve as a backup to the 
existing operating network. 
(10) How the Board of Governors would col-
laborate with the private sector to ensure interoper-
ability. 
(11) As a regulator of depository institutions 
and their holding companies, how the Board of Gov-
ernors would ensure that the Board does not exert 
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undue influence over such institutions and holding 
companies to use the system. 
(12) How the Board of Governors would ensure 
that the system would be available to all depository 
institutions, including community banks, and credit 
unions, in a manner that is not cost prohibitive. 
(13) The estimate of the Board of Governors 
for— 
(A) how long it would take to build the in-
frastructure and begin operation of the system; 
(B) how much the system would cost; 
(C) the annual operating cost of the sys-
tem; and 
(D) how long it would take for the Board 
to recover the costs of building the system. 
(14) A study of the quantitative impact of each 
of the factors in paragraphs (1) through (13), as ap-
plicable. 
Æ 
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