This article compares the much anticipated but ultimately stalled smart card revolution of the 1990s with the current expansion of mobile payment platforms, and asks how mobile payments fit into the larger payment system.

At the Chicago Fed’s 2011 Payments Conference, held on May 19–20, participants discussed how changes in consumers’ behavior in the wake of the financial crisis and recession can translate into opportunities and challenges for both traditional and nascent payment providers. They also...

Given the growing popularity of e-commerce and m-commerce over the past few years, remote payments have become commonplace. Unfortunately, remote payments fraud has grown in response. On September 26, 2011, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the Secure Remote Payment Council (SRPc)...

Immediate funds transfer (IFT) is a convenient, certain, secure, and low-cost means of electronically transferring money between bank accounts with no or minimal delay in receivers’ receipt and use of funds. Yet IFT is not widely available in the U.S. This article summarizes discussions on the...

On October 22–23, 2012, the Chicago Fed hosted its 12th annual Payments Symposium, where industry leaders convened to evaluate the implications of recent technological changes for the payments industry, including the attendant rise in customer demand for faster, more convenient payment options...

To examine the adequacy of existing efforts to prevent, manage, and mitigate data breaches and other fraud in card-based payment systems, the authors conducted 17 interviews of various payment industry participants in 2009. This article documents the insights gained from the interviews, which...

Consumer confidence in payment card systems has been built up over many decades. Cardholders expect to use their cards to execute payment instructions in a reliable and timely manner. Data breaches that degrade the perceived safety and reliability of payment cards may weaken consumer confidence...

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago will host its eighth payments conference on June 5–6, 2008. The conference will highlight threats to the security of the payments system and explore solutions to those challenges. This article previews issues that will be covered at the conference.

As consumers and merchants increasingly adopt electronic payments, the pricing of these services has generated substantial scrutiny by public authorities around the world. To discuss these developments and related issues, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago hosted its ninth annual Payments...

The authors highlight key issues from the presentations, keynote addresses, and open floor discussions at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's eighth annual Payments Conference. The conference's agenda appears at the end of this article.