What to expect at American Banker’s Payments Forum | PaymentsSource

Banks and fintechs have lots of big decisions to make about the types of payment technology they will invest in, with great risk that goes with falling behind or making the wrong choice.

Tough choices abound — whether it’s how to use generative AI, when to rely on real-time processing, whether cryptocurrency can be used for payments, , or whether to forge partnerships with firms that are also competitors. 

“The payments industry is at a pivotal moment. The clients we serve are all in the midst of major transformation and are looking for payment technology and innovation to deliver efficient, simple, secure and seamless payment execution to and from customers, employees and vendors,” Kristy Carstensen, head of global treasury management and prepaid for U.S. Bancorp, told American Banker earlier this year. 

Carstensen, one of The Most Influential Women in Payments, is among the hundreds of payment executives, entrepreneurs, regulators, venture capitalists and innovators who will be at American Banker’s Payments Forum March 4-6 at the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco. Here’s what to expect.

The Most Influential Women in Payments

Banking veteran Carstensen is among a group of standout women who are changing the way the payments industry is affecting the lives of businesses and consumers around the world. Payments Forum will kick off with an event that honors these executives and their impact on the next generation of leaders. These include Yaminah Sattarian, senior vice president and group leader at KeyBank Institutional Payments, and Sara Walsh, senior vice president and payments performance executive at Bank of America, who will discuss the major influences on their careers and how they are paying that forward. 

Talus Pay CEO Kim Fitzsimmons and Jacqueline Sousa, director of CashPro Payments ((and?)) Product Team Lead for Bank of America, will lead a discussion on how to keep in touch with new innovation and how to keep teams engaged. And Wise principal product manager Ankita D’Mello, Mastercard EVP Seema Chibber and MUFG managing director Dorothy Conroy Rule will discuss how to combat career headwinds. 

In all, more than 100 experts within the payments industry will be on hand to discuss, network and take your questions on a variety of topics. These experts include Remitly’s Saema Somalya, Spade’s Oban MacTavish, Superstate’s Reid Cuming and The Clearing House’s Elena Casal. Other institutions will also be represented, such as JPMorgan Chase, Citizens Bank, Fifth Third, Barclays HSBC, TD Bank and Wells Fargo, PayPal, Visa, Mastercard and Capital One. And challengers from the fintech world and retailers such as DailyPay, Affirm, Alacrity, Circle, Coinbase, GoDaddy and Amazon will also be there. American Banker’s partner, the EBT Community Council, will also be at Payments Forum, with sessions including how to use new technology and drive sustainable efficient options to improve how government benefits can be disbursed to recipients. 

Data, Data, Data

Data drives everything from security to marketing to making the most of the new analysis tools that inform payments technology, cross-selling marketing and risk management.  

Citizens Bank CIO and head of enterprise technology and security Michael Ruttledge will discuss how tools such as application programming interfaces and the cloud can boost scalability and resilience and enable fast updates to keep up with the competition and to embrace new opportunities. Along with Cognizant senior vice president Nageswar Cherukupalli, Ruttledge will talk about how having better data can improve multiple parts of the payments processing, including enhanced fraud detection and security, an improved customer experience, better risk management and credit scoring, optimized payment routing, increased regulatory compliance, and data-driven insights for businesses.

‘Payment always follows something’

As instant payments expand through networks such as the FedNow and The Clearing House’s RTP rail, banks are pressured to come up with uses for real-time payments. This includes apps that will speed instant payments among consumers, billers and companies. Elena Casal, chief client officer of The Clearing House, and Matthew Freind, managing director and head of new payment rails for JPMorgan Chase, will discuss the “killer apps” that will boost instant-payments usage, how real-time payments will change business models, and why real-time billing has not taken off. 

What’s the future?

American Banker will present new research on what banking leaders think about the payments industry’s next chapter for next year and beyond. Michael Moeser, American Banker’s content strategist, will discuss the catalysts that are driving investments in payments, the impact of the Trump administration on global payments, the forces driving banks and fintechs to collaborate and the level of interest bankers have in crypto, wearables, embedded payments and other emerging trends. 

The rules

As banks and fintechs collaborate more often, there are myriad risks and regulatory challenges. Chris Kushmider from Mitchell Sandler and risk and compliance expert Matthew Meyer from Dow Jones will discuss how to stay in bounds in an uncertain and potentially unstable environment. 

They’ll detail the managing regulatory risks, navigating complex compliance and how to build partnerships that align with regulatory expectations. Also, Erin Crawford, vice president and head of consumer digital for payments and money management for Fifth Third Bank, and Christian Santaniello, senior vice president and head of commercial deposits and treasury management for Axos Bank, will discuss how bank and fintech partnerships can improve business outcomes — and their experiences building partnerships with other banks and fintechs. 

Crypto capital?

Donald Trump says he wants to make the U.S. “the world capital of crypto” and signed an executive order designed to grow the digital asset industry. But that growth could also carry  risks. 

Gordon Liao, chief economist and head of research at stablecoin platform Circle, will sit down with CoinDesk’s Nik De to discuss the implications of this evolving regulatory landscape on crypto and the broader banking sector. Payments Forum will feature several high-profile cryptocurrency experts who will detail the impact of digital assets on the industry 
PayPal Senior Vice President of Digital Currencies Jose Fernandez da Ponte, MoneyGram Chief Growth Officer Anna Greenwald, Standard Chartered TMT and e-Commerce Cash Sales Head Anand Natarajan and Paysend Managing Director of the Americas and Group Head of Strategy Jario Riveros will examine how cryptocurrency and other digital technology can transform cross-border payments, particularly the ability of remittances to reach underserved communities. 

Innovators dilemma

How do execs decide which payment technology to adopt? Paul Margarites, head of commercial digital platforms for TD Bank, and Melissa Tuozzolo, global head of payments solutions client service for HSBC, will dive into the strategic decision-making processes that drive the adoption of payment technologies like the cloud, blockchain and new forms of artificial intelligence. They’ll reflect on how rapidly digital transformation accelerated and discuss emerging trends that will shape the industry’s future — where it has been, where it stands, and what lies on the horizon.