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the problem to me. My initial response: try a competitor;
there are plenty. For example, there are Block's Cash
App, Apple Pay, Google Pay and the bank-owned
network Zelle. Lesser-known alternatives also exist,
many of which specialize in international payments.
These include Remitly, Revolut and Wise. But, as person-
to-person networks, all of these have limited access to
business and government entities.

Cash as a 'solution'?
If you were in New Mexico on Sept. 2 and wanted to
apply for a fish or game license, for example, you would
have been out of luck unless you had greenbacks. The
state "Department of Game and Fish has experienced
a BOT attack, which has caused the department to
shut down its online payment processing system," the
department stated in a press release that came across
my desk.

"During this time," the department continued,
"customers will be unable to purchase licenses or
permits with a credit card. In the interim, we have a
solution to ensure our customers can still get into the
field and enjoy New Mexico's outdoors. All NMDGF
licenses and permits can be purchased with cash at
any of our approved vendor locations across the state."
(Emphasis theirs.)

Cash was their solution? That is so early 20th century.
That's coming from a baby boomer who still does carry
cash, but who has been covering the payments space long
enough to know that cash is not a "solution," at least not
the way cards and digital wallets are solutions already
in wide use among young hunters and fishermen.

Banks held to higher standards
When it comes to moving money, as Hewlett noted,
FIs have a range of options. These include ACH, wire
transfers and real-time payments. In each case, private
sector options are available, as well as services provided
by the Federal Reserve. Most options, however, rely on
the Federal Reserve to effect final settlement. So, what
happens if the Fed's systems crash?

This is no esoteric question. It happened in 2021. The
problem was chalked up to an "operational error" that
affected Fedwire, Fed ACH and the National Settlement
System. With those systems down for several hours,
many FIs turned to The Clearing House to move
payments.

It's worth noting that the Fed almost never goes down.
As the website GetBalance.com noted in a post on the
outage, the uptime for Fed ACH is 99.99 percent, which
means it's offline for no more than 1 minute and 26
seconds per day. The Clearing House operates an ACH
service called EPN, a wire transfer system known as
CHIPS, and a real-time payment network known as
RTP. (TCH provides backend processing for person-to-

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