a wire transfer? articles 3, 4 and 4a of the uniform commercial code ( “ ucc ” ) govern the above circumstances, but have nothing to say on internet payments. currently, private contract law governs ; agreements between each of the parties in an on - line transaction should be very carefully drafted and reviewed. still, if internet banking and commercial transactions were to grow in volume and complexity, it is quite possible that private contract law could evolve into a specialized commercial law of cyberspace, and eventually be codified into parts of the ucc. on a less theoretical note, i should mention that a multi - national task force on the security of electronic money, established by the committee on payment and settlement systems and the group of computer experts of the group of ten central bank governors, and chaired by israel sendrovic of the federal reserve bank of new york, issued a report on its findings entitled “ security of electronic money ” in august 1996. this task force examined primarily consumer - oriented stored - value payment products by, among other activities, surveying the leading global suppliers of both card - based and software - based stored - value systems, and concluded that the technical security measures of these systems are being designed to achieve an adequate level of security relative to other forms of common retail payment, assuming they are implemented appropriately. i recommend the report to anyone interested in a general discussion about security issues and stored - value systems, internet - based or not. moving away from consumer banking and the internet, and looking perhaps not - so - distantly into the future, i have also had occasion to question what the repercussions are for large - value payments transfer systems, such as fedwire, with the emergence of a different, much more secure internet. generally speaking, the internet today is a “ somewhat ” secure environment in which to conduct banking and financial service activity. the current level of security is not adequate for large - value payments. some internet - based payment products are becoming more secure, but only after the creators of these products have spent a great deal of time, effort and resources making their products secure. consistent fast transmission and processing are also essential for large - value payments. the internet today has no authorized, universal means of prioritizing specific electronic messages from other messages. faster and better hardware helps, certainly, but offers no guarantee. one of my responsibilities is to serve as the product director of the wholesale payments product office of the twelve federal reserve banks. this includes the fedwire transfer of

##rkfed. org / newsevents / speeches / 2020 / sin201020 2 / 5 20 / 10 / 2020 the federal reserve ’ s corporate credit facilities : why, how, and for whom - federal reserve bank of new york that in making an assessment of credit eligibility, we broadened our use of ratings to include perspectives from all nationally recognized statistical rating organizations. providing broad access also applies to the service providers that support the facilities. in early september, we announced the expansion of counterparties to the smccf, including several smaller and minority - owned broker - dealers. 13 in early october, we announced the launch of our process to re - bid our engagement with the facility ’ s investment manager. this process has begun with the ccf cash management role, and in the coming weeks and months we will re - bid the remainder of the role. together, these efforts allow us to expand the reach of our operations while making tangible progress on our commitments to diversity and inclusion, including to minority -, women -, and veteran - owned firms. let me now turn to transparency and accountability. in the spirit of these principles, we have reported to the public in near real - time our market activity, including the details of every smccf transaction. our holdings are publicly reported on a weekly basis through the fed ’ s h. 4. 1 release. every month the fed publishes the full holdings in a detailed congressional report. we also provide the attributes of the broad market index, including detailed issuer - level weights. aside from portfolio activity, we have also disclosed the ccf ’ s legal agreements. on the new york fed ’ s website, you can find all documentation with the department of treasury that governs the operation of the facilities, as well as all contracts with external vendors. on the latter, we remain committed to disclosing all fees to service providers as they are paid. impact on credit conditions as you all know, corporate credit conditions have recovered substantially from the worst strains of march. research from the new york fed estimates that, within the first three months following the ccf announcement, credit spreads retraced about 90 percent toward pre - pandemic levels, with two - thirds of the improvement occurring on facility announcement dates ( i. e., before purchases even began ), and that half of the improvement in bid - ask spreads since the peak in march occurred on the initial announcement date itself. 14 this provides strong evidence that the market found credible the design