Wallets, Rails, and Coins: Payments executives on how to push the industry forward in the era of real time

Ensconced in Silicon Valley Bank’s NYC innovation facility on November 13th, executives from across the payments industry came together at Tearsheet’s yearly The Power of Payments Conference. 

The audience, spanning fintech execs to seasoned banking leaders, eagerly awaited insights from the industry’s leading experts to discuss what role payments are playing in shaping consumer behavior, the fintech industry, and what role they can play in FIs enhancing  product strategies.

“Understanding consumer & SMB behavior is critical to designing impactful payment solutions. Advanced analytics allow financial institutions to analyze transaction patterns and preferences, informing the development of personalized offerings such as loyalty programs or tailored credit products. By integrating payments with credit monitoring, wealth management, and budgeting platforms, financial institutions are delivering more comprehensive value. This ecosystem approach positions payments as a critical touchpoint in fostering long-term financial health for consumers,” said Corey Wagner, Vice President of Enterprise Partnerships at Suzy, a SaaS market research firm. 

Collaboration, Challenges, and Client Focus

Kicking off the day was Christopher Hollins, Head of Product Sales, Strategy, and Design at SVB. Hollins began by musing over how much the industry’s attitude towards collaboration had changed. Back in the 2000s, when Hollins was starting out his career in the telecom industry, it was unlikely that a leader like AT&T would ever sit in the same room as its competitors. The fact that the biggest banks were sharing the room with each other as well as their fintech competitors was reassuring and a positive signal: “This is progress,” he added.

Christopher Hollins, Head of Product Sales, Strategy, and Design at SVB

When incumbents and innovators get together, good things can happen. “We have capabilities like SVB Go, which I’d say is top tier within commercial banking. We’re continually improving that, and some of that  improvement actually comes from forums like this and talking with clients, figuring out the nuance,” he said.

For Hollins and his team, figuring out the details of the client experience is a critical part of product development and design. 

“We are a specialized bank. We don’t focus on every industry. That is done purposefully, because we believe that we understand the innovation economy and understand what those founders and those who want to be in that sphere need to be able to do in order to be successful,” he said.

SVB’s Hollins currently foresees a few challenges that will deeply impact the payments industry:

1. Is fast always good?: As the industry shifts towards RTP, Hollins’ team is currently working on figuring out how the new pace at which funds are moved will impact different edge cases: “It also means that once the money’s gone [from an account], it’s gone. There’s no way to retrieve that. There are basically limited backstops to do that, and so clients will have to make certain that everything that they’re doing in the processes is connected and that they have transparency,” he said.

2. Handling AI with care: The human connection in relationship management is a critical aspect of doing business which cannot be ignored in the current rush to augment everything with AI, according to Hollins. “We are working very diligently to ensure that we don’t over rotate toward everything that’s digital where you basically fall off of a cliff if you need to talk to a human being who knows anything beyond what the systems are doing. That’s where we believe our expertise, combined with our digital capabilities are going to be the strongest,” he added. 

Hollins’ focus on blending human expertise with digital tools reflects a broader understanding that the effective use of AI depends on maintaining the trust and relationships that remain central to the financial industry. But it’s a difficult balance to strike. 

“The financial industry stands at a crossroads, where innovation is both a challenge and an opportunity. The true value of AI lies in its ability to deliver actionable insights and measurable outcomes. Real time insights, via AI, can help financial institutions reimagine customer relationships, optimize operations, and further build trust. As part of this process, firms must prioritize upskilling their workforce to bridge the gap between business expertise and technological capability. Comprehensive training programs ensure employees are equipped to implement, manage, and innovate with AI. This investment in human capital is essential for sustainable AI adoption,” said Suzy’s Wagner. 

Payments as a leveling force

Pulling out his reading glasses, Payoneer’s CEO John Caplan expressed what he thinks the core mission of his company is: “Payoneer exists to make it easy for businesses anywhere to do business everywhere,” he said. 

John Caplan,
CEO,
Payoneer

“I’ve always believed that brilliance is evenly distributed, but opportunity is not.” 

He demonstrated how Payoneer attempts to level the playing field by laying out a case study on a SMB owner in Vietnam that sells handmade textiles. Despite having an excellent product and an ambition to sell globally, this SMB owner is not trained in understanding the nuances of cross border transactions and may find her money “locked in cyberspace”. 

“You’re dealing with frustrated buyers, confusing fraud issues, dwindling cash flow, payment processing delays, exorbitant transaction fees, poor exchange rates, and complex compliance issues,” he said.

Caplan also quipped how he, too, fell in the New York trap, thinking that the world centered around Manhattan. “The world isn’t the US – it’s round and it’s everybody,” he added.

When it was starting out, Payoneer was just a toll gate on the payments highway, according to Caplan, but now it’s focusing on becoming a snow plow that removes barriers from everybody’s path. Currently, the firm is focusing on building a comprehensive financial stack. “We also bought a workforce management company, and we’re beginning to provide contractor and employee management for people for our customers globally,” he said. 

The need to be everywhere

Shifting from how a transaction travels across time and space to how it is initiated, ZIP Co’s CPO Rory Herriman laid out the details of why his firm has three distinct experiences and products:

a) At the checkout: On ecommerce platforms, ZIP functions as a payments provider to merchants. “In that way, we operate and act like a payments company to our merchants with traditional authorization and capture settlement,” he added. 

b) D2C: ZIP also has an app which allows customers to log in, shop at the merchants available on ZIP’s network, as well as take out a virtual card if they want to.

c) Integrations: Herriman added that the firm also has integrations with platforms like GPay, as well as mainstream browsers. “If you’re looking for products in Google or Edge, and you enter a product name, when the products come up and you decide to buy one, you can have the opportunity to check out with Zip Co,” he added. 

Rory Herriman,
CPO,
ZIP CO

The reason behind the firm’s multidimensional presence stems from its vision: “If we are going to fill this need of being the answer for your financial need, we have to be present where that need exists. A big part of our future is about, how do we expand our presence across the multitude of different places you like to spend?” he said. 
Now the firm is using its presence across multiple shopping environments to lean on data about spending patterns into more products that help customers’ financial lives. To achieve this goal, Herriman sees tech like AI playing a major role in helping the company marry products to consumer behavior rather than the other way around. 

When the bank moves on embedded payments

Dan Dall’Asta, Director of Revenue Strategy for Fifth Third’s embedded payments arm Newline, added the banker’s perspective to the discussion by outlining how Fifth Third has been building its embedded payments platform after its acquisition of Rize Money. 

Dan Dall’Asta, Director of Revenue Strategy,
Newline
by Fifth Third

Given the changes in the regulatory landscape, Dall’Asta hopes that more banks feel confident “stepping into the space, because we need to have strong, well-capitalized bank institutions to help support this ecosystem, because the last thing we need is banking institutions that either don’t have enough compliance and regulatory wherewithal or just technology intermediary layers that are fueled by need for growth rather than need for stability and security,” he said. 

It’s important that all the layers (and players) in the payment stack are connected and also that motivations align with one another.

“Otherwise, you’ll have different motivating factors at the front end, particularly if you are just an emerging fintech that’s fueled by venture capital growth,” he added.

So far, Dall’Asta thinks that the industry has been focused on creating the technological plumbing for the emergent companies, but has not focused on translating the changes brought on by tech and emergent firms to processes that can meet regulatory requirements. “We don’t want to be the only bank providing the experiences that are going to be the future of embedded bankative payments,” he added. 

Here, he thinks banks play an important role in anchoring the embedded payments industry in safe practices. 

“Without banks being a real participant in the design element, those front end layers are always going to be a bit [distant] from knowing how do we step forward in a safe, friendly, regulatory, friendly way and with risk and compliance at the forefront,” he added.