JPMorgan, Visa, Wal-Mart Launch Effort for Faster U.S. Payments

Companies including JPMorgan Chase, Visa, and Wal-Mart are teaming up to speed up payments in the U.S. banking system.

The U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC) will work toward a system allowing consumers and businesses to “safely and securely pay anyone, anywhere, at any time and with near-immediate funds availability,” according to a Nov. 13 statement from the newly formed private-sector group and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

The council is an offshoot of a Fed task force that has been working for years with emerging payments firms, card networks, payment processors, and banks on an ambitious effort to ...