Comments on W3C Web Payments Interest Group Charter from Federal Reserve

The following are comments from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis on behalf of the Federal Reserve Banks for the proposed W3C Web Payments Interest Group Charter



1.      Scope Statement:

a.       Line 2 - Change "payment instrument" to "payment method."  Payment instrument is a more narrow term than the examples suggested in the parenthetical list that follows.

b.      Line 2 - Add the following to the list of payment methods in parentheses-i.e., ACH, debit cards, prepaid cards, e-checks.  Also, delete the reference to "coupon" as this isn't a payment method.  Consider also deleting "Loyalty card" as this may or may not be a payment method, depending on whether it is tied directly to the payment itself.  In some cases a loyalty card is tied only to customer information, rewards, or other items relevant to the customer/merchant relationship and not the payment method itself.

c.       Line 2 - Change "new" payment systems to "newer" payment systems.  PayPal, as an example, has been around for 10+ years.

d.      Line 3 - Add business-to-business (B2B) to the list of transaction types covered by the scope.   Many businesses, especially smaller businesses/merchants transact many of their B2B payments on the Web.

e.       First bullet under "Note" - Developing technical standards is generally out of scope but may be needed to support the work of the Web Payments Interest Group (WP-IG).   Consequently, we suggest stating that the W3C will pursue and/or encourage the development of technical standards

2.      Success Criteria:

a.       Shouldn't the success criteria also include implementing standard web payments that are faster, safer, and more convenient than options that are available now?

3.      Deliverables:

a.       We suggest being more explicit about the need for the Web Payments IG to review relevant external documents.  For example, ISO has a work group in place developing mobile banking and mobile payments standards.  This work is relevant and perhaps overlapping to some aspects of the Web Payments IG effort and so should be reviewed.

b.      Under topic #2, Wallets and Wallet APIs, bullet 5, change the "...integrating new payment schemes such as loyalty cards or coupons" to "enable integration of new payments schemes and ancillary services, such as loyalty cards or coupons...."

c.       Under topic #4, Identify, Authentication, and Security, bullet 1, what's the definition of "high value" authentication?

d.      Under both topics #3, Payment Transaction Messaging, and #4, consider adding a new bullet that states, "Leverage and/or reference existing, relevant technical standards.  In item #4, place this as a sub-bullet under existing bullet 4, "Minimize risk in identifying users."

4.      Dependencies and Liaisons:

a.       Under External Groups, we suggest removing ANSI, as it isn't relevant here.  However the ANSI accredited standards development organization X9 is.  Thus, we suggest adding ASC (Accredited Standards Committee) X9, and describe this as "The ANSI accredited U.S. standards development organization for U.S. financial services.  ASC X9 uses an open, consensus process to develop its standards."

b.      In addition to ISO broadly, we suggest adding the specific, relevant technical committee, ISO TC 68.  This can be described as, "ISO Technical Committee 68 is the ISO entity that develops international financial services standards."



Claudia S. Swendseid
Senior Vice President
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Phone: 612-204-5448
Cell: 612-655-7523
Email:  Claudia.swendseid@mpls.frb.org<mailto:Claudia.swendseid@mpls.frb.org>




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