?The 25 researchers, practitioners, and academics who contributed to this work are to be commended for the excellent descriptive rendition (nonquantitative) of the existing system and the useful insights into future directions. Retail and business payments systems, bank and nonbank networks, as well as topics of regulation and legislation are covered in the nine segments of the volume. ... The book is recommended first and foremost to banking professionals, second to academics interested in updating their knowledge of the payments system (quite revolutionary), and third to upper-division undergraduates and graduate finance majors looking for current material for papers on the subject. Essentially, the best available volume that integrates in one place updated material on all the important topics relating to payments mechanism. Excellent selected bibliography.?-Choice