paymentsinnovation

In this episode of the Economy Matters podcast, an expert on payments discusses reaching different populations, how to foster trust in the evolving financial system, and what payments innovation can mean to financially marginalized groups.

The big banks are asking the Federal Reserve to re-examine what companies should be subject to interchange caps on debit transactions imposed by the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

In a letter and meeting with the Fed, the Clearing House, a trade association and payments company owned by the biggest U.S. banks asked the Fed to examine whether certain business arrangements used by Fintechs mean that they should be subjects to the same interchange caps as banks with more than $10 billion in assets.

If the Fed were to apply the Clearing House’s recommendations, it could affect the business model for Fintechs and for many prepaid programs that are designed to help low-income Americans. 

One of the newest names in the Fintech space comes with a ton of experience. North Lane Technologies revealed its new name in October as part of an announcement about its joining with daVinci Payments under Syncapay, another Fintech company.

In this episode of the IPA Payments Pod, we spoke with Seth Brennan, the CEO of North Lane. He describes how North Lane evolved from its start-up days as Ecount, through being part of a large bank with Citi, then a multinational with Wirecard. We also talk about where the company goes from here as part of a larger organizations created out of multiple Fintechs. Brennan says that Nprth Lane and DaVinci are on their way to becoming a juggernaut in incentive payments.  

North Lane and Syncapay are members of the IPA.  If you want to join them and other payments leaders in helping to create an environment that fosters innovation, then go to www.ipa.org  to learn more about the benefits of membership.

Few areas of payments are more complicated than health care benefits delivered to individuals. While health plans want to give consumers more control over how they spend their dollars, the tax code restricts how those dollars can be used.

For years, health plans that wanted to provide consumers with money for over-the-counter medicines and incent behaviors like healthy eating or getting a flu shot, had to resort to an assortment of payment tools. Checks and gift cards might be distributed before or after the fact. Consumers might need to use a prepaid or debit card, but then report what they bought and prove it fit within a plan’s guidelines. Whatever the methods used, the process was cumbersome and not always effective.

InComm Health Care has developed a system that can streamline these payments. The company’s system combines point of sale services and a multipurpose card to make the payment process as easy as any card payment. The system can filter eligible items down to the SKU level, and automatically pull from different pools of funds available to the cardholder for everything from medicines to healthy food.

This system earned Incomm the IPA’s Payments Innovation award. In this episode, we talk with InComm about its capabilities and where things go from here.

InComm is a member of the IPA. Go to www.ipa.org  to learn more about the benefits of membership.

The IPA recently held its first Fintech Elevator. The online event gave participants a chance to make industry connections and win a membership in the Innovation Payments Association.

In this episode, we talk with the founder of one of our winners, Invest Sou Sou, about how being more social with our household finances can lead to greater success. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Fonta Gilliam was a diplomat who have worked in a number of countries around the world. She saw a different approach to managing money than what is common in the United States. She believes that getting people to share more about their finances will help them achieve their goals.

To this end, she founded Invest Sou Sou, which offers financial institutions a platform that their customers can use to create social networks to help them reach goals. The use cases can range from individuals saving to buy a house to groups savings towards a common goal.

You can learn more by visiting their site at: https://investsousou.com/. If you want to create a Sou Sou wallet of your own, visit: https://investsousou.com/elementor-55/how-sou-sou-works/.

Interested in joining Invest Sou Sou as an IPA member and helping to shape the future of payments? Reach out today and talk to us about the benefits of joining. Go to www.ipa.org  to learn more.

The IPA recently held its first Fintech Elevator. The online event gave participants a chance to make industry connections and win a membership in the Innovation Payments Association.

In this episode, we talk with one of our winners, Frizzmo, an app and card account that combines spending tools and financial literacy modules to teach kids about money management. In addition, it offers schools a way to raise money through an automated donation tool built into the spending tools.

We talk about why Frizzmo was created, how it works, and what it’s like to launch a company during a pandemic.

Interested in joining Frizzmo as an IPA member and helping to shape the future of payments? Reach out today and talk to us about the benefits of joining. Go to www.ipa.org  to learn more.

In this episode we take a peek into people’s diaries with Claire Greene from the Federal Reserve bank of Atlanta, and Joanna Stavins of the Federal Reserve bank of Boston.

In their report, The 2019 Diary of consumer Payment Choice, they use data logged by consumers as part of a payments diary to understand the trends in consumer payments behavior. The initial diaries were tracked in October 2019, but given everything that has happened since then, they also discuss the results of two snapshot surveys done earlier this year.

Debit cards still remain the most popular way to pay, and despite the growth in electronic payments, cash is still holding its own.

You can find their report and supplemental data here.

Interested in becoming an IPA member and helping to shape the future of payments? Reach out today and talk to us about the benefits of joining. Go to www.ipa.org  to learn more.

In this episode IPA CEO Brian Tate and our members talk with Brian Brooks, the Acting Comptroller of the Currency.

In a wide-ranging discussion, they talk about regulating during the COVID19 pandemic and beyond. Looking to the future, they discuss fintech charters, small dollar lending, and digital dollars.

The Comptroller also brings up the social justice issues that the country has been facing. He describes how the OCC has launched a new effort “Project REACh,” to address structural issues that affect the ability of Americans to build wealth. You can learn more here.

This is an edited version of the audio portion from the IPA’s Summer of Learning session. The IPA will be holding a ‘Day of Payments’ training day on August 19 and its first Fintech Elevator pitch event for start-ups on August 26.

Interested in becoming an IPA member and helping to shape the future of payments? Reach out today and talk to us about the benefits of joining. Go to www.ipa.org  to learn more.

COVID19 has led to speculation that the pandemic could be the catalyst for the arrival of the cashless society.

Stay-at-home measures and pandemic fears have led to an increase in online shopping. At the same time, some brick and mortar merchants are refusing cash as a defense against germs. But consumers haven’t abandoned cash just yet.

Rachel Huber, senior analyst in payments at Javelin Strategies and Research completed a study on the health of cash for ATM provider Cardtronics in late 2019. Given the pandemic, the company thought that she should do another survey to see how the pandemic changed things.

In our conversation, we talk about what happen to cash usage, who uses cash, and the growth of contactless payments. Some of the findings were counterintuitive. You can hear about how things are playing out in the episode and find the complete study at:https://www.cardtronics.com/landing/HealthOfCash.aspx#:~:text=Cardtronics%20sponsored%20Javelin%20Strategy%20and%20Research%20to%20conduct,COVID-19%20pandemic%20and%20economic%20response%20in%20April%202020.

Interested in becoming an IPA member and helping to shape the future of payments? Reach out today and talk to us about the benefits of joining. Go to www.ipa.org  to learn more.