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ARTICLE · 20 MAY 2026

Federal Reserve Requests Comment On Payment Account Proposal

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The Federal Reserve Board has proposed a new "Payment Account" framework that would provide limited Federal Reserve payment system access to eligible financial institutions, including fintechs and nontraditional entities.

United StatesFinance and Banking
Benjamin Saul
Benjamin Saul
Vito Arethusa
Vito Arethusa

On May 20, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve (FRB) requested public comment on three proposals that would establish a limited-purpose "Payment Account" that "legally eligible financial institutions could use for the specific purpose of clearing and settling their payments."1 The Payment Account would function effectively as a new intermediate category of Federal Reserve payment-system access between traditional master accounts and complete exclusion from Reserve Bank payment services. The Payment Account was initially proposed by Federal Reserve (Fed) Governor Christopher J. Waller in a speech at the FRB's October 2025 Payments Innovation Conference, where he referred to the concept as a "skinny" master account.2 The FRB later requested public input and comment on a prototype of the limited-purpose Payment Account in December 2025.3 For more information on these previous actions, see Steptoe's previous alerts on Governor Waller's proposal and the initial prototype.

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