system must be innovative, while also addressing risks, supporting financial stability, and maintaining public confidence. faster and more secure retail payment systems the development of real - time retail payments has been gaining momentum globally. the uk has had a system in place since 2008. australia is actively developing a new nationwide system. the european central bank, the bank of japan, and several other central banks have also been acting as catalysts to promote real - time payments initiatives. the broad emergence of real - time systems throughout the world reflects the growing demand for such systems, and the need for the payments system to keep up with evolving technology. 2 in the united states, our traditional bank - centric payments system, sometimes operating on decades - old infrastructure, has adjusted slowly to the evolving demands for greater speed and 1 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches safety. innovators have built new systems and services that ride on top of the old rails but with mixed results, and over time, our system has grown more fragmented. our payments system is large and diverse, with a wide array of financial institutions, systems, and service providers ; it will take coordinated action to make fundamental and successful nationwide improvements. the federal reserve has often helped address problems of this nature by convening stakeholders in the payments system and encouraging them to identify key issues and to work together to make fundamental improvements. with this in mind, the federal reserve has in recent years been working with a wide range of stakeholders to improve the speed, efficiency, and safety of the u. s. payments system. significant dialogue and public responses to a consultation paper in 2013 indicated that stakeholders would welcome a broad initiative to work for change. in response, in 2015, the federal reserve launched several initiatives including a faster payments task force and a secure payments task force. i spoke about the payments security initiative on another occasion. 3 the secure payments task force has been advancing important work, including outlining ways for the industry to improve payment identity management practices, crafting guidance on standardizing fraud and risk data, and developing a framework for protecting sensitive payment data. you can expect to see the results of these efforts later this year. today, however, i will focus on the faster payments task force. in forming the task force, we committed to an inclusive and transparent approach that would ensure representation of diverse stakeholder interests. the group is comprised of over 300 representatives from financial institutions, technology companies, consumer advocates, and others. 4 the role of the task force is to identify and

reflect a growing recognition that sound accounting policies and meaningful public disclosure by banking and other financial organizations and by nonbanking companies can improve market discipline. with sufficient, accurate, and relevant information, market participants can better evaluate counterparty risks and adjust the availability and pricing of funds to promote better allocation of financial resources. thus, more - effective market discipline can, in a sense, " regulate " the risk - taking activities of banks and other firms in ways that can complement supervision and regulation of financial institutions and foster stable financial markets. the concept of market discipline has assumed greater importance among international banking supervisors with the publication of the new international capital framework, called basel ii, which seeks to strengthen the market's ability to aid bank supervisors in regulating capital adequacy. as you know, in addition to pillars on risk - based capital requirements ( pillar 1 ) and risk - based supervision ( pillar 2 ), basel ii includes the very important pillar 3, which addresses disclosure of risks and capital adequacy to enhance market discipline. this approach to capital regulation, with its market - discipline component, signals that sound accounting and disclosure will continue to be important parts of the global bank supervisory approach for many years to come. in addition to disclosure and market discipline, supervisors and regulators around the world recognize the need for stronger audit and control standards for financial services firms and other companies. the quality of management information and supervisory and financial reporting is dramatically affected by internal control systems, including internal audit programs and reviews by external auditors. sound supervisory and financial reporting, good internal controls, and quality audits are becoming more important to financial services regulators because they directly affect regulators'ability to promptly identify institutions in distress and work toward a satisfactory resolution. this shared understanding of the importance of sound audit and control practices led to an unprecedented level of cooperation among the international regulatory community - - in this case, iosco, the basel committee, the iais, the european commission ( ec ), the world bank, and the financial stability forum, which came to be known as the monitoring group. working together, they were able to develop a common position on reforms. this common position served as a basis for dialogue with the leadership of ifac about establishing a credible independent oversight authority to help enhance the integrity and objectivity of the iaasb's international audit - standards - setting processes. this led to the creation of the new public interest oversight board of ifac, which is now busy assuming its new responsibilities. the public interest