The Evolution of Retail Payments

In the speech, Kohn speculates about how the payment system might evolve - saying "it is possible that in the next ten to twenty years the Reserve Banks will accept only checks that are deposited electronically and that can be presented electronically; any remaining paper checks may have to be cleared through other channels. In this scenario, the current paper-check infrastructure of the Federal Reserve that is heavily reliant on physical transportation will be replaced by an electronic-processing infrastructure with a production data center and a few backup sites, not unlike today’s ACH network."