These initiatives represent the work of the Alliance. Through project teams, task forces and industry groups, members collaborate to influence existing and emerging payment trends, drive change, remove barriers and support innovation. Deliverables from Alliance initiatives include creating resources and tools, developing best practices and testing proof of concepts – ultimately shaping the future of payments.– ultimately shaping the future of payments.

The Alliance welcomes new project team members and the collaboration of ideas! To join an active project team, you must be an Alliance member in good standing and be able to participate consistently during scheduled meetings. Project teams typically meet monthly via conference call and in-person at the winter and fall Alliance meetings. Learn more about each of our active initiatives and contact us to join a team.

The Faster Payments Playbook project team, in collaboration with the U.S. Faster Payments Council, is developing tools for financial institutions and business end users that are seeking direction and clarity on faster payments. These tangible tools will help organizations understand all of the faster payments options, make decisions and develop go-forward strategies appropriate to their customer bases and business needs. This team recently released Faster Payments 101, an educational primer designed to impart foundational understanding of faster payments and the momentum behind its adoption in the U.S.

This team is producing tools and resources to help organizations understand evolving threats and identify questions and topics to address before, during and after a cyberattack. This team’s first deliverable is a template for organizations to use providing guidance and considerations in responding to security incidents.

This team is developing tools and other resources to help small and medium-sized businesses more readily understand and use ACH to make and receive payments for a variety of use cases. Recently, this team launched the ACH Quick Start Tool, an interactive online resource to help businesses understand how they can use ACH to enable B2B payments.

This sub-group of the ACH Quick Start project team is creating a tool for developers who need to code to the Nacha Operating Rules format, but are not Rules experts. This tool will include file formats, scenarios for using specific data elements and information on where to find details in the Rules.

Voice Payments is an emerging channel, where consumers use devices such as Alexa or Google Home to conduct banking or make payments. This project team will address this critical topic through industry education and developing standards and policies.