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

we were ably and vigorously supported by a group of market participants, chaired by david puth, ceo of cls. david ’ s group contained people from all around the world on the buy side, including corporates and asset managers, and the sell side, along with trading platforms, ecns and non - bank participants, drawing from the various foreign exchange committees ( fxcs ) and beyond. all parts of the market were involved in the drafting of the code to make sure all perspectives were heard and appropriately reflected. there are two important points worth highlighting : first, it ’ s a single code for the whole industry and second, it ’ s a global code. on the first point, the code supplants the existing codes that have been present in the fx market. so there is now one single code. importantly, the code covers all of the wholesale fx industry. this is not a code for just the sell side. it is there for the sell side, the buy side, non - bank participants and the platforms ; it reaches around the globe and across the whole industry. the way it is relevant will depend on the nature of the engagement with the fx market. what this 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches means in practice is that the steps different market participants take to align their activities with the principles of the code will differ, reflecting the size, complexity, type and extent of their engagement with the fx market. on the second point, it ’ s a global code : our group contained representatives from the central bank and private sector from all the 16 largest fx centres, including both developed and emerging markets. the first phase of the code was released in may 2016. it covered areas such as ethics, information sharing, aspects of execution and confirmation and settlement. the second phase covered further aspects of execution including e - trading and platforms, prime brokerage, as well as governance, and risk management and compliance. the complete code comprises 55 principles spanning these issues. the principles are written in plain language and should be easily read and understood by market participants. the principles are supplemented by a suite of examples to illustrate their practical application. market participants had a number of opportunities to comment on the code, in addition to the direct input of the market participants group. before its release, drafts of the full text of the code were distributed to market participants for their review, principally through the various fxcs, but also through other industry associations to ensure all perspectives were appropriately reflected in the code. through