The Federal Reserve has released a report and recommendations intended to speed up the US payments system. The proposed changes would move payments to near real-time, a big change from the current ACH system which can take several days. Fed staff said that the Federal Reserve might consider taking a more direct role if the private sector can’t offer the services alone. But the report is also careful to stress that any Fed action would be closely coordinated with big banks, which have opposed changing the payment system because of concerns over costs. The report states that although the business case of banks investing in real-time payments appears neutral to slightly negative in the near term, it could create substantial benefits for banks, including new fee-based services.