Over the next year, these 22 payments industry leaders and subject matter specialists will work collaboratively with Federal Reserve leaders to formulate recommendations for improving the quality and consistency of automated clearing house (ACH), wire, and check fraud data. Although noncash payments fraud remains a very small fraction of total payments value, it is a large number in absolute terms--approximately $8.3 billion in 2015. This, combined with the growth of real-time payments, underscores the need to better understand payment confidentiality, integrity, and security threats.

"The Fraud Definitions Work Group is another step in the Federal Reserve's efforts to promote the safety, security, and integrity of the U.S. payment system through collaboration with the payments industry," said David Sapenaro, Federal Reserve System payments strategy director and chief operating officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

"Understanding payments fraud trends can help us mitigate fraud risk," said Ken Montgomery, Federal Reserve System payments security strategy leader and chief operating officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. "However, there often are inconsistencies in the classification and reporting of payments fraud data from study to study and a significant lag between the time that fraud occurs and when it's reported. In addition, fraudsters continually adapt their attacks as the use of ACH, wire, and checks for innovative faster payments evolves."

In January, the Federal Reserve outlined the expertise needed to serve on the work group and asked payments experts to submit "expressions of interest." The Federal Reserve selected work group participants from these submissions and appointed some additional Federal Reserve and industry participants to ensure diversity of thought and strong expertise across the many needed disciplines.

The Fraud Definitions Work Group seeks to build a recommended payments fraud classification model that includes detailed definitions and/or categories to help the industry better understand key data points and address ACH, wire, and check payments fraud. Work will begin later this month to examine existing payments fraud definitions and areas where new or changed definitions could be helpful. The work group also will create a roadmap to encourage broad industry adoption of this classification model to improve the consistency and timeliness of available payments fraud data.

Members of the Fraud Definitions Work Group are:

Ken Montgomery, Fraud Definitions Work Group sponsor, Federal Reserve System payments security strategy leader, and chief operating officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Jim Cunha, Fraud Definitions Work Group chair and senior vice president of treasury and financial services, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Gasan Awad, vice president, fraud and anti-money laundering product management, Fiserv
Dondi Black, vice president, senior enterprise fraud strategist, FIS
Jamey Boone, vice president, fraud risk management, Early Warning Services
Nell Campbell-Drake, vice president, Retail Product Office, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Natalie Diana, senior counsel, Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Department of the Treasury
Carlos Fuentes, vice president of strategy and architecture, Wholesale Product Office, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Adriana Guaderrama, vice president, ACH product manager, First Century Bank
Chris Guard, vice president, e-services compliance and fraud, State Employees' Credit Union of North Carolina
Cheryl Gurz, vice president, Citizens Bank
Michael Herd, senior vice president, ACH network administration, NACHA
Rakesh Korpal, executive director, JPMorgan Chase
Lee Kyriacou, vice president, real-time payments, The Clearing House
Danny Luong, director, fraud technology, PwC
Roy Olsen, executive vice president EVP/Cashier & Human Resources Director, American National Bank & Trust
Carla Palma, senior director, global treasury operations, PepsiCo
Al Pascual, senior vice president, research and head of fraud and security, Javelin Strategy & Research
Rene Perez, director, product management, Jack Henry
Kim Plaugher, assistant vice president, funds services, Navy Federal Credit Union
Sergio Rodriguera, manager, government fintech, SAS
Kathy Stokes, director, fraud prevention programs, AARP
Eric Tran-Le, vice president, product management, Guardian Analytics

The Federal Reserve also has established the Fraud Definitions Community Interest Group for individuals who are interested in providing input and following the efforts of the work group. Visit FedPaymentsImprovement.org to sign up for this community interest group and to learn more about how to contribute to the fraud definitions work.