One reason the U.S. has been slow to move from paper checks to electronic payments is that the benefits for individual users are less than for the payments system as a whole.

A discussion of international, domestic, pricing, and operational aspects of electronic payment system risk, with a description of proposals for managing the risk and for reducing Federal Reserve exposure.

In the U.S., the share of payments made "electronically"--with credit cards, debit cards, and direct payments--grew from 25 percent in 1995 to over 50 percent in 2002 (BIS, 2004). This paper frames this aggregate change in the context of individual behavior. Family level data indicate that the...

The Federal Reserve plans to expand its automated clearinghouse network in November, offering service to Mexico and five countries in Europe: Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland.