What you'll see at this year's Payments Forum

Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors.

Keith Pitts

In a recent interview, UMB technology exec Uma Wilson summed up one of the most important changes impacting the payments business: the ability to move money almost instantaneously, a phenomenon almost beyond imagination a generation ago. But now, it's poised to be mainstream.  

"When was the last time the country launched a new payment system? It doesn't happen all of the time," said Wilson, chief information and product officer at UMB, referring to the The Clearing House's RTP network and the pending FedNow real-time payment system, which present the opportunity to bring instant processing to nearly every corner of the economy — and perhaps the world.

Wilson will be one of dozens of executives, innovators and thought leaders from the payments industry who will converge at Payments Forum, scheduled for May 1-3 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego. 

 Speakers will dive into issues like management and career development; emerging financial services like buy now/pay later and digital assets; the risk of fraud, recession and inflation; fintech/bank partnerships and the new opportunities from web 3.0. 

Here are some of the highlights.

Women in Payments. One of the highlights of Payments Forum is an event honoring the Most Influential Women in Payments, and this year is no exception.  

Whitney Stewart Russell, Fiserv's president of digital solutions, will discuss the current state of women in leadership and the relationship between women-led organizations and higher levels of employee satisfaction. We'll also hear from Christine Roberts, executive vice president and president of Citizens Pay, and Carol Wang, senior vice president of commercial payments at KeyBank, who will discuss career paths in the payments industry — which can often take unusual twists and turns. 

There will also be discussions on the importance of strong and creative leadership during times of crisis. 

Inflation and Recession. The banking crisis that followed the government seizure of Silicon Valley Bank was just one of many challenges facing the financial services and payments industries, which must manage inflation, an economic slowdown, new regulations and a macro environment for banking that is changing day by day. Ram Palaniappan, CEO and founder of early wage access firm EarnIn, Melissa Tuozzolo, global transaction services head of international payments at Bank of America, and Helen Herring, senior vice president of payments implementation at First Century Bank, will discuss how their respective companies have weathered challenges thus far. 

Getting paid…in real time. The FedNow instant settlement system is expected to launch after Payments Forum, joining The Clearing House's RTP network, which has been live for five years. FedNow will immediately shake up the payments industry, potentially bringing real-time settlement to thousands of new banks and millions of new consumers and businesses. But it will also bring challenges, such as how RTP and FedNow will work with one another and with emerging payment rails. One of the biggest opportunities and challenges will be re-imagining how payroll and other forms of employee compensation will change. Salaries are already being paid faster than the traditional biweekly direct deposits and checks, and real-time settlement will bring even more change. Top executives including Cheryl Gurz, director of RTP product management at The Clearing House, Rob Nardelli, director of commercial banking and business development at DailyPay, and Doug Sturm-Smith, senior vice president of immediate payments at PNC, will provide insight into their experiences with real-time settlement and payroll. 

A stable of stablecoins.  Sahil Goswami, head of crypto and Web3 for MVB Bank, will discuss blockchain-based options for payments, money movement and settlement. The payments industry has many products and experiments involving distributed ledgers and other decentralized financial services. And stablecoins are proving to be both a popular and a controversial way to use blockchain and the concepts behind cryptocurrency to improve transaction experience and extend access to digital commerce. What is the future of these innovations? And will stablecoin payments enter the mainstream anytime soon? 

Spotlight on small business. Small businesses were perhaps the hardest hit during the pandemic and the recent spike in inflation — and they could also find themselves facing pressure from volatility in the banking sector. Yet these businesses account for most of new job creation, and businesses are still launching at a robust pace. What can financial institutions and payment companies do to meet the needs of small businesses? And what are they doing? Stu Richards, CEO of Bredin, Juliana Berger, director of product management for Intuit QuickBooks Payments, Cassie Wong, head of payments and risk partnerships for Shopify, Betsy Vavrin, president and founder of SMC Marketing, and Rasha Katabi, founder and CEO of Brim Financial are among the executives who will discuss small business payments and banking at Payments Forum. 

Buy now/pay later. BNPL lending is one of the fastest growing products in all of financial services, but it's also one of the most controversial. As consumers continue to flock to BNPL lenders, regulators and inflation pose a two-headed challenge for fintech lenders, and banks and traditional payment companies are also making their move on the market, offering a more regulated option during a volatile time in the economy. Ginger Schmeltzer, principal of the data and services group at Mastercard Advisors, and Gaurav Sethi, chief strategy and product officer for Citizens Pay, will discuss different BNPL models, while Patrick Haggerty, senior director of Klaros Group and Mia Huntington, executive vice president and head of buy now pay later and point of sale lending at U.S. Bank and Elavon, will discuss the future of BNPL. 

Cross border. As more merchants sell internationally, cross-border payment innovation takes on a heightened sense of urgency. That means banks and fintechs will need to collaborate more to streamline how money moves in different jurisdictions — while avoiding the delays and costs that come with the traditional correspondent banking system. Rebecca Kelly, a senior vice president at Western Union, and Ryan Zagone, head of Americas at Wise for Banks, will discuss new innovation in cross-border payments, and how banks and fintechs are working together more than they have in the past.