U.S. Faster Payments Council and ASC X9 Establish Joint Standards Steering Committee to Advance Faster Payments Standards Initiatives

WHY THIS MATTERS

The formation of the FPC–ASC X9 Joint Standards Steering Committee (JSSC) on May 28, 2026, represents a significant structural intervention in the fragmented U.S. real-time payments landscape. While the deployment of instant networks has advanced rapidly—anchored by the Federal Reserve’s FedNow Service and The Clearing House’s RTP® network—the broader banking system has encountered a massive technical barrier: a lack of operational standardization.

Unlike more consolidated banking markets, the U.S. financial system is heavily decentralized, featuring more than 9,000 commercial banks and credit unions. This structural fragmentation introduces immense friction when trying to achieve seamless cross-network interoperability. When payment processors and financial institutions map transactional data differently across networks, it triggers high rates of payment rejection, reconciliation logjams for corporate treasuries, and critical defensive blind spots that financial criminals can exploit. By launching the JSSC, the U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC) and the Accredited Standards Committee X9 (ASC X9) are creating a formalized, single point of technical alignment. By bridging the FPC’s real-world practitioner insights with ASC X9’s rigorous, ANSI-accredited standard-setting machinery, the committee will work to establish a consistent, unified operating code for the entire domestic marketplace.

The U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC), a membership organization devoted to advancing safe, easy-to-use faster payments in the United States, and the Accredited Standards Committee X9 Inc. (X9), the organization accredited by ANSI to develop financial industry standards for the United States, today announced the formation of the FPC–ASC X9 Joint Standards Steering Committee (JSSC), a collaborative body established to accelerate the adoption of faster payments by addressing standards-related barriers across the payments ecosystem.

Building on the strategic alliance established between the two organizations in 2025, the JSSC brings together industry leaders and technical experts to align real-world industry experience with technical standards development. The Committee will work to identify and prioritize standards initiatives that strengthen interoperability, consistency, and security across faster payments while remaining aligned with global frameworks such as ISO 20022.

The JSSC reinforces the shared commitment of the FPC and ASC X9 to enable a secure, interoperable, and broadly accessible faster payments environment in the United States. The Committee is scheduled to convene in June 2026 to begin a structured review of existing standards and identify high-impact opportunities to address industry friction points through standards development and coordination. As part of this effort, early alignment will include engagement with the X9 Fraud industry forum, where stakeholders collaborate on fraud prevention standards foundational to the security of faster payments.

The JSSC is governed through a joint delegation model with equal representation from the FPC and ASC X9 to ensure balanced oversight and broad stakeholder input.

FPC Representatives

• Matt Friend, Operations Committee Appointee; Managing Director, JPMorgan Chase
• Kristie Gantt-Bean, Elected Member Representative; Digital Product Management Director, Wells Fargo
• Joanie Stem, Elected Member Representative; Product Manager, Fiserv
• Angela Hendershott, Senior Vice President, Association Operations Leader, FPC
• Reed Luhtanen, Executive Director and CEO, FPC

ASC X9 Representatives

• Corby Dear, Chair, X9 Board of Directors; Director of Standards, Bloomberg
• Ainsley Hargest, Chair of X9A Electronic & Emerging Payments; Payments Standards Strategy, Federal Reserve Financial Services
• Ted Rothschild, Vice Chair, X9 Board of Directors; Executive Director Payments, JPMorgan Chase
• Janet Busch, Director of Operations, ASC X9
• Steve Stevens, Executive Director, ASC X9 

The Committee’s work represents the first phase of a long-term roadmap focused on foundational alignment, prioritization of standards initiatives, expanded industry participation, and ongoing education to help deliver tangible value to the faster payments ecosystem over time.

“The formation of the FPC–ASC X9 Joint Standards Steering Committee marks an important step in advancing collaboration between the payments industry and standards development organizations,” said Reed Luhtanen, FPC Executive Director and CEO. “By combining the FPC’s broad industry engagement with ASC X9’s expertise in financial standards, this Committee will help drive practical outcomes that support greater interoperability, security, efficiency, and adoption of faster payments.”

“X9 is pleased to work with the U.S. Faster Payments Council to help identify where standards can remove friction and support broader adoption of faster payments that will benefit the U.S. payments ecosystem,” said Steve Stevens, Executive Director of ASC X9.

FF NEWS TAKE

The JSSC is moving aggressively to address the primary roadblock threatening U.S. instant payment adoption: skyrocketing Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud. Real-time payment systems operate on an absolute principle of immediate, irreversible finality. This structural characteristic eliminates the traditional 24-to-48-hour banking buffer window that compliance teams previously relied on to catch and claw back illicit funds.

To confront this vulnerability, the committee’s immediate roadmap prioritizes direct, early coordination with the X9 Fraud industry forum ahead of its first official assembly in June 2026. The technical goal is to design standardized, cross-institutional data schemas that allow banks to instantly exchange risk signals, verified fraud indicators, and mule account signatures directly inside the clearing loop.

Crucially, the elite composition of the JSSC’s governance delegation—featuring payment heavyweights from JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Fiserv, Bloomberg, and the Federal Reserve Financial Services—proves that the transaction industry is taking a hardline stance on technical standardization. By anchoring these localized U.S. anti-fraud and messaging parameters deeply within the global ISO 20022 electronic data framework, the JSSC isn’t just streamlining domestic money movement; it is building the foundational technical architecture required to eventually plug the U.S. instant payment grid into cross-border, real-time remittance corridors.