Reimagining Payment Systems: Allocation of Risk for Unauthorized Payment Inception

Payment systems have evolved as new mechanisms for transferring value have been created. The legal infrastructure supporting those mechanisms has evolved in a piecemeal fashion resulting in very different risk allocations depending upon the mechanism used to transfer value. This article argues that the time has come to revise payments law to address the risk allocation issues in a direct fashion based upon uniform policy positions, regardless of the mechanism used to transfer value. To illustrate that concept, an approach to drafting statutory language for drafting allocation of risk from unauthorized payment inceptions is proposed.