Across America, the need for at-home banking has risen, along with the need for real-time capabilities.

As more Americans have taken a hold of their finances, more financial services are moving the needle faster than ever before to meet customer expectations of 24/7/365 control and access.

Carlos Rotger & Steven Bernstein were guests on the Payments Nerds podcast, talking specifically about a digital savings product utilizing the RTP® network that has evolved between their two companies.

In this episode, we talk all about:

• Why consumers are using this product and vocalizing their needs
• How J.P. Morgan Chase & Digit work together to make this happen
• The search for electronification and instantaneous payments today
• How instantaneous payments have eternally shaped financial services

For small businesses, cash flow is king and is one of the most crucial aspects of business right now. Will you have enough money to operate the business in a way that is sustainable? Do you have access to your funds when you need them?

What happens when you realize at the close of business on Saturday that you need access to funds to open on Sunday? How do you operate when your money is tied up in ACH?

Adam Carter from U.S. Bank & Sarah Cichoski from Elavon, a merchant payment processing provider, talk specifically about a new real-time merchant funding product for small and medium sized businesses that uses the RTP^® network.

In this episode, we talk all about:

• Why small businesses are the ones that need real-time merchant funding the most
• How U.S. Bank & Elavon went about creating this real-time merchant product
• The overwhelming feedback they’ve received from their customers
• How using the RTP network provides a competitive advantage

As consumers, most of us expect great digital experiences.

And COVID-19 is converting the last holdouts to Amazon.

It’s time we ask the same of financial institutions.

On the latest episode of Payments Nerds, I sit down with Susan Kent, Enterprise Technology Strategist at Truist, and  Wade Hobbs, Vice President, Solution Strategy at Viewpointe.

We discuss the race behind the scenes at some of the largest financial institutions to modernize their payments.

Payments platform modernization — it’s a mouthful, but it’s why pretty soon, your payments will keep up with your contactless groceries.

We discuss:

• What payments platform modernization means
• The technologies like AI are fueling the trend
• Why COVID-19 has made digital no longer an option, but a necessity

Our listeners keep asking us: What are folks actually doing with RTP payments in their everyday lives?

Today, we want to answer that question.

In this episode of Payments Nerds, I speak with Jeff Rayis, Director of Treasury & Financial Management, Michigan State University, and Parker Nolan, FMI Scholar at Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business. We discuss MSU's emergency student loan program and
how it has become one example of an RTP network case study.

Plus, we talk about:

• Why the emergency student loan program needed a boost
• How Parker won the Spartan Blockchain Innovation Competition
• How funds get delivered in real-time using the student loan app and the challenges the project had to overcome
• The future of using the RTP network at MSU

Often, banks, especially community banks, will say there's no demand for RTP®. No one's asking for this, they say. But some folks on the ground argue that isn't so. What's the scoop on RTP and fintechs?

In this episode of Payments Nerds, we speak with Jesse Honigberg, technology chief of staff, and Matt Brazda, product manager, at Cross River. Their company is helping empower millions of customers and is writing the future of banking through API-driven products. Jesse, Matt, and I discuss the demand in the marketplace from fintechs as it applies to RTP.

Plus, we talk about:

• Why RTP specifically resonates well with fintechs.
• How RTP helps facilitate developing partnerships with fintechs.
• Challenges associated with providing RTP to fintech partners.
• Opportunities that come with providing RTP to fintech partners.

Something went wrong with your direct deposit. Maybe your employee got underpaid, or the wrong deductions got taken out. Whatever the reason, their check is messed up, and they need it fixed right now. How do you fix it?

Traditionally, you had to go through direct deposit, which took days.

Now, however, Paychex has created a newer, faster way.

In this episode of Payments Nerds, we speak with Eric Wade, product manager for Paychex, a leading provider of payroll benefits and human resources services.  We discuss the new real-time payroll product offering from Paychex using the RTP® network and its benefits.

Plus, we talk about:

• How Paychex' new real-time payroll product opens up payment options for clients.
• Why banks should stand up and take notice of RTP.
• The latest trends in payroll and why this is the time to move to RTP.
• What employees and customers need to do to switch to RTP.

What do credit union members want from their payments? Is it speed? Convenience? Low costs? Rewards? A warm belly and a pat on the back? 

In this episode of Payments Nerds, we speak with Lisa Coffey, chief innovation officer at Corporate America Credit Union. We discuss how efficiency and convenience are the two key concepts for credit unions that want to meet customer expectations for payments.

Plus, we talk about:

• How credit unions should look at payments tactically.
• Why credit unions need to be more innovative than other banks.
• What's driving the move for these players to enter the payment technology marketplace?
• Why making a profit isn't about charging the retail banking customer.

Customers expect the same digital experience from the bank that they receive from retailers. But many financial institutions haven't set up the technological infrastructure they need to make that happen.

In this episode of Payments Nerds, we speak with Carrie Blankenship, director of product management at Fiserv and discuss how the back office is changing for financial institutions.

Plus, we talk about:

• Critical components for banks to consider when supporting real-time payments.
• The cross-generational nature of the digital experience.
• Will batch processing die?
• The value of a payment hub.
• Why Fiserv's approach is scalable for financial institutions looking to enable real-time payments.

People nowadays have high expectations for fast and convenient services. That does not exclude employers. In this episode of Payments Nerds, I speak with Eric Wade, product manager at Paychex. We discuss how Paychex is able to offer real-time, on-demand payroll and payment corrections.

Plus, we talk about:

• How the gig economy has altered our expectations for payroll.
• How companies are competing against employers like Walmart and Uber in terms of on-demand payment.
• Why employees and employers expect instant payroll corrections.

Faster payments mean faster fraud. With the speed of fraud, organizations need to be able to roll out a new fraud model on demand several times a year. On this episode, I interview Allegra Angus, Product Manager at NICE Actimize, about financial crime prevention.

What we talked about:

• The many ways that fraud is faster today.
• The vulnerabilities of banks and credit unions.
• The strategic importance of fraud and risk management Integrated data sources and model optimization.

Everybody wants safer and faster bill payment options.  Now, the new Real-Time Payments^® system from The Clearing House gives all financial institutions the ability to offer enhanced digital payments innovation to their customers. To talk about the current state of bill pay and the future of RTP® is payment innovator, futurist, and strategist, Peter Davey.

He discusses:

• The relationships between bank, biller, and bill payer.
• The benefits of Real-Time Payments
• The future of bill pay.

There are roughly 40 countries around the world that already have real-time payments systems. These range widely in terms of their design and the degree of economic development of those countries.

In this episode guest Leo Lipis, Managing Director at Lipis Advisors, walks us through the ways in which RTP^® in the U.S. is both similar and different from its global cousins.

Over the past few years, there’s been a concerted effort to bring faster payments to fruition.
Why is this now becoming real as opposed to when the industry has tried in the past?

The answer is simple: survival. In this episode Carl Slabicki, Director, Product Line Manager at BNY Mellon, shares more.

“We look at moving to Real-Time Payments^® as a strategic imperative.”

So says today’s guest: Mary Alice Liotta, SVP, Director, Operations at ESL Federal Credit Union — and for good reason. ESL has seen a number of exciting efficiencies in their payments arrive recently, both on the customer and the internal side.

In this episode, Mary Alice talks about how ESL’s whole team embraced RTP^® as well as some of the most exciting changes happening in their organization as a result.

Instant gratification in payments is not asking too much. It’s simply what people expect.
So why does the US lag behind when it comes to real-time payment solutions?

In this episode, we interview Steve Ledford, SVP of Products & Strategy at The Clearing House, who gives his thoughts on the development process of the RTP^® network — a real-time payments solution, including:

• Why meeting customer demands is central to innovation
• How technology has enabled real-time settlement
• Whether companies should wait for the feds to use RTP

What’s the surprising trigger that’s prompting financial institutions to initialize faster payments on the RTP^® network? Robert Mancini, Services Executive & Payments Evangelist at Finastra, has the surprising answer.

Demographics.

Banks know they need to transform themselves. For a long time they have depended on great customer service to differentiate from their competitors. But the Baby Boomer employees who embodied that customer service model are retiring in droves, and are hard to replace.

Young adults coming out of college are not interested in those jobs. So these banks have to find a new way to set themselves apart to meet the needs and expectations of their customers and wow them.

If you’re a payments nerd, you know that unfortunately, today most payment data is more big data than smart data.

What makes smart data? For many financial institutions, real-time payments (RTP^®) are the key to opening the door to vast amounts of smart data that they can use to create a whole new suite of services. By allowing RTP, financial institutions open up their architecture, according to recently interviewed Keith Riddle, President & CEO of Sherpa Technologies, a CUSO that helps credit unions transform their digital infrastructure and offerings.

Did you hear about the new payments system? Will the latest policy change help or hurt folks using payment systems? You’ll get answers to these questions and more in our new Payments Nerds podcast. We at The Clearing House are experts in payments.

The Clearing House operates U.S-based payments networks that clear and settle more than $2 trillion each day through wire, ACH, check image, and the RTP® network. It is the nation’s most experienced payments company, with a long track record of providing secure and reliable systems, payments innovation, and strategic thought leadership to banks and credit unions.

The payments space has never been this dynamic. There are new products, new technologies, and new policies that will disrupt the old order in ways that you need to understand.

You will hear people with some really interesting perspectives on all things payments. We want this show to be a repository of very stimulating conversations for payments nerds.

If you want to be a guest or know someone who should be a guest on the podcast, please reach out to Melissa Luther, Marketing Director, The Clearing House.