Have you ever wondered if consumers actually look at disclosures for payment services? And if they do look at them, how much time do you think they spend reading them? If the average adult reads around 250 words per minute and a disclosure page contains 1,000 words—likely a low estimate—then a consumer would spend four minutes on the page before clicking accept or reject. I am confident that a more realistic estimate of time consumers spend on these pages falls far short of the time required to read the legally required consumer protection information. How many of us just click on the "I Accept" button without reading the disclosure? Maybe it's time to come up with a better way to disclose.
I believe that disclosures are one of the more dreaded elements in designing, launching, and managing financial services. If you haven't experienced the dread first hand, you can find evidence of it in the countless comment letters submitted by payments stakeholders and posted to the Federal Register when a proposed rule could affect disclosure terms. The work and expense of delivering disclosures at precisely the time required by law are completely wasted when consumers fail to read them.
The goal of disclosures is to educate consumers on a product's terms and conditions, to define their responsibilities, and to ultimately protect them from financial harm or surprises. With this information, consumers can make informed decisions. We should hope consumers comprehend and retain the critical information provided.
Opportunities exist to present important consumer protection information in ways that are far more easily digestible than a thousand-word disclosure in a four-point font. For instance, a gamification model could ask the consumer direct questions related to fees in pop-up windows with animated visual representations of the scenarios. You can brainstorm to come up with messages, jotting down quick ideas—for example, "You chose instant transfer, the fee is $1, Accept or Decline." Or, "Help us monitor your transactions daily, instant transfers will be $0, Accept or Decline." A large font and short words can quickly articulate the key points and big risks. Moreover, building the disclosure logic into the technology better protects the consumer.
Here's some good news—you now have the support of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to test your innovative solutions in making disclosures likelier to achieve their aim. The CFPB's Office of Innovation recently issued new policies to encourage innovation. For example, the office instituted a trial disclosure program and has committed to granting or denying applications for these trials within 60 days of submission. Accepted applicants will have up to two years to test their disclosures. They will also have access to state and global regulators through the CFPB's affiliation with the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council
, the Global Financial Innovation Network, and the newly formed American Consumer Financial Innovation Network.
Applicants and disclosures need not be company- or product-specific, although that is an option. Service providers, trade associations, consumer groups, or other third parties may also use the trial application program. Group applications could help spread trial disclosure development costs such that smaller entities would be able to afford to participate in the program. Such intention has been evidenced in the CFPB's Office of Innovation's first "No-Action Letter," issued to more than 1,600 HUD housing counseling agencies, stating that it will not take enforcement action with agencies that enter into "certain fee-for-service arrangements with lenders for pre-purchase housing counseling services."
Have you considered redesigning a payment product or service disclosure that consumers will be likelier to read? Apply to test it 
, and good luck!
By Jessica Washington, AAP, a payments risk expert in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed