FPC Kicks Off Fall Conference Season Gaining Input from Merchants at MAG


Kim Ford, FPC Executive Director

The fall industry conference season is in full swing, and we’re on the circuit, ensuring we’re in front of as many industry stakeholders as possible to share our vision for the future of faster payments.  We’re excited to be participating at a number of  events this fall, such as AFP, the Fed’s Payments Symposium, Nacha’s Payments Innovation Alliance Fall Member Meeting, the US Payments Forum, regional payment association conferences and more, to help spread the word about the FPC’s mission and  gain insight from business end users, tech providers, and financial institutions on things that are important to them when it comes to adoption of faster payments and how the FPC can advance that objective.

Last week, Elizabeth Grice and I attended the Merchant Advisory Group (MAG) annual conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, which assembled more than 800 payments professionals predominantly from business end users, but the audience also included banks, fintechs and payment network operators. I had the great pleasure of being part of the “Faster Payments: What is Happening as Many Faster Payment Solutions Emerge in the U.S.?” panel with Steve Mott, BetterBuyDesign; Tim Dwyer, Nationwide Insurance; Lou Anne Alexander, Early Warning; Amy Morris, Nacha; and Connie Theien of the Federal Reserve. Despite being a late-day session, our panel drew a full house, illustrating the strong interest in faster payments and the faster payments landscape.

With all of those experts on the stage, we were able to have a robust discussion about some of the faster payments solutions available today, those that will be available in the near future, how solutions are currently being used (i.e., urgent insurance claim disbursements) and new uses cases  in the future. Inevitably though, the conversation came back around to the critical topics of fraud, ubiquity and interoperability (as most faster payments conversations do) with questions such as “how can we reduce fraud in a faster payments environment” and “given the various faster payments solutions, how can we achieve ubiquity?”

To a packed room, I was able to share that that’s why the FPC was established—so that we are able to come together as an industry and address these issues. Every FPC member has a voice in the process, a seat at the table. We draw all payments system stakeholders together to take on—and ultimately solve for—the tough issues.

That message of inclusivity and action was well received by merchants. Many visited our booth in the exhibit hall to dig more into what the FPC is about and our current work efforts. And many inquired about membership, seeing the opportunity to have an equal voice and the same influence as other membership segments as a true value add in driving dialogue and decisions.

Having all voices at the table remains a priority for the FPC. In order to be successful, we know that we must have a representative mix of stakeholders supporting our efforts. Hearing from and understanding the viewpoints of all stakeholders allows us to generate the inclusive ideas and decisions that will help us achieve our mission.

To that end, we look forward to our upcoming Member Meeting, Oct. 23-24, in Boston, to be able to hear from all of you. And we welcome new voices as well. If you have a business associate, client, vendor or other potential prospect, please bring him/her on October 23 to learn more about the FPC; just reach out to memberservices@fasterpaymentscouncil.org to submit your request.

And, of course, we look forward to seeing many of you during this conference season. With the various events taking place in the coming weeks, we’re poised to gain more feedback to help us shape our efforts moving forward. Take a look at where we will be through the end of the year  and feel free to seek us out to share your thoughts and opinions. We look forward to the input and continued dialogue!
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