An examination of the payment problems that will have to be overcome as the electronic marketplace evolves, including the issues of trust between buyer and seller, security of payment instruments, individual privacy versus law enforcement concerns, and the implications for monetary policy.

An examination of how much Federal Reserve Banks should charge for daylight overdrafts. A low fee involves questions of moral hazard in central banking, while a high fee raises questions about risk myopia in private credit markets.

This commentary explains the phenomena of path dependence, hysteresis, and network economies using lively historical and contemporary examples. The author shows how the path dependence and network economies can interact to produce a variety of undesirable ends-inefficient payment systems, the...

Despite the increasing use of credit and debit cards and the emergence of various electronic payment instruments, currency remains king-at least for small-dollar-value transactions. The author examines the Federal Reserve's present role in providing currency and explores the challenges and...

A description of the U.S. payments system, outlining its evolution and examining some of the areas where improvements are needed.

A comparison of Fedwire, CHIPS, and GlobeSet payment services for 24-hour global markets, emphasizing the constraining influence of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy responsibilities on Fedwire's market share.

The death of paper checks has been predicted since the 1960s, but only recently has their use begun to decline. The end may be near, though, as two forces accelerate the trend away from checks: the growing acceptance of electronic payment instruments and the passage of legislation designed to...

An investigation of one of the reasons why electronic payments have not yet supplanted cash and checks in retail transactions: Consumers willingness to use an innovation depends on the number of merchants who have already adopted it, and merchants willingness to invest in the innovation depends...

The information age has led to many new forms of payment, including credit cards, debit cards, and online banking. In many ways, these new mechanisms seem preferable to cash. While the disappearance of cash is a very long way off, it seems people are starting to use it less.

An opinion by Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President W. Lee Hoskins that shrinking the federal safety net, including the payments system, must be a precondition of financial reform in the United States.