Deadline: Request for Information (RFI) on Addressing Payments Fraud

The public comment period will close on Thursday, September 18, 2025.

Fraud and scams, including check fraud, continue to be a growing concern in the payments industry, inflicting significant harm on consumers, businesses, and financial institutions. Payments fraud also has the potential to erode public trust, undermining the safety, accessibility, and efficiency of the nation's payments system, upon which the US financial system depends.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Treasury; the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board); and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) seek public input on questions related to payments fraud. This RFI offers the opportunity for interested stakeholders to identify ways that the OCC, the Federal Reserve System (FRS), and the FDIC could take actions collectively or independently to help consumers, businesses, and financial institutions mitigate check, automated clearing house (ACH), wire, and instant payments fraud.

A payments fraud scheme may involve multiple institutions and payment methods, each of which may fall within the remit of different Federal and State agencies. As a result, and given the scope and complexity of payments fraud schemes, no agency or private-sector entity can address payments fraud on its own. The Board, FDIC, and OCC may be able to take discrete steps to mitigate payments fraud through regulatory and supervisory roles, collectively or independently. In addition, Reserve Banks may be able to further support the industry in addressing fraud as the payments system operator and payments improvement catalyst.

In its role as a payments system operator and catalyst for improvements, the Federal Reserve has focused on payments system safety for many years through data collected by The Federal Reserve Payments Study, ongoing payments research units, such as ours at the Atlanta Fed, and through targeted stakeholder engagement such as: Strategies for Improving the US Payment System white paper in 2015, the Secure Payments Task Force that met in 2013-18, the Synthetic Identity Fraud Mitigation Toolkit launched in 2022, and Fed-sponsored work groups that developed the FraudClassifier^℠ model announced in 2020 and the ScamClassifier^℠ model unveiled in 2024.

The RFI requests input on five potential areas for improvement and collaboration:

• External collaboration among the agencies, Federal Reserve Banks, and industry stakeholders.
• Payments fraud education for consumers, business, and industry by the agencies and Federal Reserve Banks.
• Regulation and supervision to mitigate payments fraud, including any opportunities the Federal Reserve may have related to check fraud.
• Payments fraud data collection and information sharing.
• Federal Reserve Banks' operator tools and services to reduce payments fraud.

You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. OP-1866, by any of the following methods:

• Agency website (preferred method): https://www.federalreserve.gov/apps/proposals/. Follow the instructions for submitting comments, including attachments.
• Federal eRulemaking portal: https://http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
• Email: [email protected]. You must include the docket number and regulation identifier number in the subject line of the message.
• Fax: (202) 452-3819 or (202) 452-3102.
• Mail, courier, and hand delivery: Ann Misback, Secretary, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 20th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20551.

For more information, review the Federal Register RFI Notice.