PaymentsJournal

PaymentsJournal
PaymentsJournal

The PaymentsJournal Podcast is a podcast that features payment and banking industry professionals throughout the value chain discussing relevant payment and banking topics. If you have a topic you would like us to cover or would like to be on the podcast please reach out to us at info@paymentsjournal.com

Episodes

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    How FIs Can Get Ready for Nacha’s Upcoming New Rule

    As fraudsters become more innovative in their schemes, Nacha is rolling out new rules to address emerging fraud risks, particularly scams involving business email compromise, vendor impersonation, and the increasing use of money mules. These key changes, centered around the ACH rules, began rolling out in October and will continue through 2026. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Glenn Fratangelo, Head of Fraud Prevention Product Strategy and Marketing at NICE Actimize, and Suzanne Sando, Senior Analyst of Fraud and Security at Javelin Strategy & Research, discussed what financial institutions need to do to enhance their fraud detection programs to better protect both banks and customers. The Growing Threat There’s no doubt that authorized fraud is on the rise. Fraud threats have increased in both volume and complexity, especially as payment innovations evolve to keep up with advancements in technology, as well as consumer and business needs. “Javelin has noted these increases over the last few years in terms of imposter scams, fraud, and other new activity,” said Sando. “Anecdotally, we're hearing so much about imposter activity, which is becoming more sophisticated and convincing. It relies on that sense of urgency for the unsuspecting customer to act, and it's not going to go away anytime soon. The digital and fast-paced nature of payments has really emphasized the importance of dealing with the problem.” In the past, Receiving Depository Financial Institutions (RDFIs) managing ACH transactions on behalf of their customers could take a more reactive approach, handling each transaction as it came through. The responsibility for detecting fraud primarily rested with the originating institution, or ODFI. However, the new rules now hold RDFIs accountable for catching fraud in real time—or as close to real time as possible. This shift means actively reviewing suspicious activity, flagging transactions that seem off, and taking the initiative in returning funds that do not belong in certain accounts. RDFIs can now return questionable transactions, and ODFIs have more leeway \to request returns when issues arise on their end. Starting in 2026, these monitoring requirements will become even more stringent. Increasing the Burden In terms of operational burden, RDFIs will now bear greater responsibility for real-time fraud detection and case management to effectively identify and prevent fraud. “Traditionally, that fell under the purview of the ODFI, but with the shift RDFIs will have to dedicate resources to monitor suspicious transactions and potentially fraudulent activity that is incoming, something they previously did not have to do,” said Fratangelo. “That's going to create increased workloads for an already stretched operations team, which will now be required to flag and investigate suspicious incoming transactions in real-time.” Larger financial institutions will need to implement new machine learning models, which will require additional governance time and introduce another layer of complexity to their existing fraud detection systems. “Larger institutions may have the capacity and ability to scale their teams, but we all know quality investigators are hard to find,” Fratangelo said. That’s why there's a ramp up period to train analysts and investigators and get them up to speed.” Smaller institutions will face even more difficulty, as they often lack effective automation. As their transaction volumes grow and new alerts are add...

    22 min
  2. 2 DAYS AGO

    During a Hectic Holiday Season, Gift Cards Continue to Be a Reliable Bet

    The holiday season is here, bringing with it a host of celebrations. From office parties to family gatherings, shoppers are navigating an evolving landscape of gift-giving traditions. In our latest podcast episode, we dive into how consumer trends, new technologies, and the timeless appeal of gift cards are shaping the way people are gifting this season. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Sarah Kositzke, Director of Research, and Jonathan Soffin, VP of Global Brand & Product Marketing at Blackhawk Network (BHN), chatted with Jordan Hirschfield, Director of Prepaid at Javelin Strategy & Research. They discussed the results of BHN’s Holiday 2024 Shopper and Gift Card Insights, the trends driving holiday gift card purchasing, and the accelerating momentum of the prepaid industry. Moments of Celebration One of the most notable trends in recent years is that consumers are no longer buying gifts for just a single occasion. Instead, they’re shopping for multiple events throughout the holiday season, including school occasions, office parties, and get-togethers with friends and extended family. “There are all these great moments of celebration throughout the holiday season that often require gifts,” Kositzke said. “One of the things that we've been tracking is how consumers determine what the right gift is for different people across different events. How are they going to figure out what's the right thing to bring for grandma, their daughter, or a co-worker?” According to BHN’s research, roughly half of consumers will directly ask recipients what they want, while others will source ideas from family and friends. Some shoppers even check social media to see the products or services the recipient has liked on Instagram or Pinterest. An emerging tool for holiday shopping this year is artificial intelligence, with about half of younger consumers planning to use it for their gift shopping. The ways they’re leveraging AI range from finding deals to generating unique gift ideas.  “I have twin teenage boys, and when it comes to Christmas presents, they want to make sure one doesn't get a better gift than the other,” Soffin said. “I asked ChatGPT which gift I should get them, and it came back with fashion tech gadget [recommendations] like wireless earbuds, gaming accessories, and sports gear. At the top of the list was a gift card to a gaming platform or a streaming service. If I'm not sure what specific brand of tech or fashion they want, a gift card to their favorite store is a great option.” Shopping Motivations Holiday shoppers are starting earlier than ever to find the perfect gifts for everyone on their list. Budgets are now spread across a longer period, beginning even before September and extending through December. However, only about a quarter of consumers’ holiday budgets are spent at the start of this period, with the remainder concentrated from Black Friday through the end of the season. Younger consumers, in particular, are motivated by promotions and sales events. The BHN report found that Gen Z encounters more seasonal sales events than older generations, which drives many to wait for Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions. What’s more, many Gen Z consumers have tighter budgets, as they may be recently out of school or in their first jobs.

    20 min
  3. NOV 13

    Taking On the AI-Assisted Fraudsters

    Artificial intelligence is fueling a major transformation in the financial fraud landscape. AI has democratized criminal sophistication and fraud at a very low cost of conducting business, generating more malignant actors that financial institutions have to fight against. What can these institutions do to mitigate increasingly sophisticated frauds and scams? In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Kannan Srinivasan, Vice President for Risk Management, Digital Payment Solutions at Fiserv, and Don Apgar, Director of the Merchant Payments Practice at Javelin Strategy and Research, discussed how fraudsters are using generative AI to hone social engineering and bypass authentication, and how we can fight back. The Deep-Fake Threat Driven by AI, deep fakes represent a new frontier in fraud. There has been a 3000% increase in deep fake fraud over the last year and 1200% increase in phishing emails since ChatGPT was launched. Synthetic voices have been around for decades. They used to sound like a hollow robot, but recent advances in technology have allowed voices to be cloned from just a few seconds of audio. They are so realistic that fraudsters were able to use a deep-fake voice of a company executive to fool a bank manager into transferring $35 million to them. “In banking, especially at the wire desk, talking to the customer is always considered the gold standard of verification,” said Apgar. “So if somebody sends an e-mail and says I want to initiate a wire, they'll actually have to talk to a banker. But now, if the voice can be cloned, how do bankers know if it's real or not?” In business applications, single-channel communication should not be accepted, said Srinivasan. “If you get a voice call from somebody to do a certain thing, don't just act on that,” he said. “Send an email or a text to confirm that you heard it from that person. Or hang up the phone and confirm through another channel that this is exactly what they wanted. “We hear stories about a phone call coming in and saying your son has met with an accident and they're in a hospital, you need to send $8000 for an emergency procedure. They prey on human emotions. We have to make sure that we step back, think about what's happening, then call your family or friend to make sure that the news is accurate.” A Range of Use Cases Imposter scams have also exploded recently across other use cases. Large language models can take a phishing email, customize the content and iterate it until the scamster gets a successful response from the victim. Sophisticated criminals are creating packages for less-sophisticated criminals to buy. For $100 a month, a would-be hacker can purchase a bot-as-a-service turnkey application. To conduct a fraud operation, they just need to upload the victim's information, such as their phone number and the impersonating business name and phone. The bot will automatically call the victim and impersonate the business, often requesting that they read out the one-time password. Once the criminal gets the OTP, they can do whatever they want with it, including logging into the institution under attack, authenticating transactions, and changing passwords. The entry barrier to committing fraud has come down significantly. “There's almost a multiplier effect on the attack vectors end,” said Apgar, “because AI is not only making it easier to crank out more and more phishing emails more efficiently, but it also makes them more realistic.” How Are We Stopping Fraud?

    25 min
  4. NOV 12

    Very Real and Very Here: The Proliferating Use Cases for Instant Payments

    Instant payments have been a global phenomenon, but the momentum for real-time payments  is building in the U.S. There is a growing expectation among both businesses and consumers that when they send funds, the recipient should be able to access them instantly. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Justin Jackson, SVP, Head of Enterprise Payments, Fiserv, and Robert Clayton, Vice President of Product Management, as well as Albert Bodine, Director of Commercial and Enterprise Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research, discussed the increasing number of use cases for instant payments and the progress that has made toward adoption. Instant Use Cases One of the early use cases for instant payments has been in the gig economy, predominantly in the rideshare market. Drivers are constantly refueling, performing maintenance, and buying food and beverages. To keep them out on the road, it would be a great boon for rideshare drivers to refresh their funds throughout the day, any day of the week, through a real-time payments connection. “There are similar needs in the marketplace space,” Clayton said. “There is a demand for real-time, around-the-clock payments so marketplace sellers can manage their inventory. Marketplaces traditionally have set payment boundaries around sellers, where they must wait a prescribed amount of time or reach a sales threshold before they can request a payout. Real-time payments have tremendous benefits for those sellers.” The insurance industry is also seeing traction. Often, clients lose their car or house and it could be a massive competitive differentiator for an insurance company if they are able to settle a client’s claim in real-time during an urgent situation. Instant payments could serve government agencies in a similar capacity. The Southeastern U.S. was recently hit by hurricanes that did significant damage, which created the urgency needed for many to receive disaster funds. “Federal and state agencies are extremely focused on getting aid to the people who survived these events,” Clayton said. “They need to make those funds available as quickly as possible, but it can’t be location based. Even if the government could deliver checks same-day to disaster victims, many have evacuated or their homes have sustained extensive damage.  The ability to pay a person digitally in real-time, wherever they might be, could be an incredibly important force for government agencies.” Shifting the Conversation Although the amount of use cases for instant payments has increased, some of the financial institutions that were early adopters of RTP or FedNow aren’t using the rails to their fullest potential. Many of these organizations can only receive instant payments; they don’t have the functionality to send. “Either they didn’t see the use case or the applicability, or those institutions are concerned about the risks,” Jackson said. “However, that mindset has shifted to where it’s not receive-only, it's receive-first. They may not be ready to send instant payments now, but they want that capability in the coming months or years. They know they will have customers that want to make instant transfers or pay bills in real-time.” The risks of sending instant payments, and the potential for fraud, has daunted some U.S. financial institutions because real-time payments are guaranteed credit transactions that are instantly available on the recipient’s end.

    31 min
  5. OCT 17

    Bank of Canada Takes Oversight of Payment Service Providers

    In 2021, the Government of Canada passed the Retail Payments Activities Act, which required the Bank of Canada, the nation’s central bank, to begin overseeing payment service providers (PSPs). Under the legislation, Canadian PSPs—along with any entities involved in the electronic transfer or storage of funds—must register between November 1 and 15. In preparation of these new regulations, Ron Morrow, Executive Director of Payments, Supervision and Oversight at the Bank of Canada, spoke with Brian Riley, Co-Head of Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research in a recent PaymentsJournal podcast. They discussed how and why PSPs should ensure they are ready to comply with the upcoming requirements. Embracing the Regime After the legislation was passed, the Bank of Canada worked with the Department of Finance to develop regulations for supervising PSPs. The focus is primarily on two key requirements for PSPs. First, they need to establish an operational risk framework to effectively manage business continuity, cyber threats, and other related operational risks. Second, if they hold funds on behalf of end users, they must ensure those funds are adequately safeguarded. In the event that a PSP holding client funds goes out of business, those funds would be considered bankruptcy-remote and could be returned to the end users. “Many of the PSPs we've talked to actually embraced the regime,” Morrow said. “PSPs are largely unregulated in Canada, but coming into the regulatory fold will help their interactions with other regulated financial sector entities like banks and credit unions.” Once payment service providers come under the supervision of the Bank of Canada, they will be eligible to become members of Payments Canada after the government passes some necessary legal amendments. This will enable PSPs who meet eligibility requirements to directly connect to Canada’s national payments infrastructure. As a result, eligible PSPs will be able to participate directly in Canada’s real-time payment system, which is currently being developed by Payments Canada and other payment infrastructure providers. “The PSP, one way or another, is going to be dealing with regulated entities,” said Riley. “If they are not compliant with this, they're going to have some downstream issues. If they are compliant, it sets the stage for being able to move into other markets and going deeper within Canada.” Worldwide Standards When it was building out the regime, the Bank of Canada examined the approaches taken by other jurisdictions regarding payment regulation. “Wherever possible, we align our standards with what is already out there in the world,” said Morrow. “If there was a standard that was becoming common practice or best practice, and it made sense for Canada, we incorporated it into our own rules.” This should help PSPs in two key ways. First, domestic PSPs will be well positioned to conduct business in other jurisdictions due to the consistency of the rules with those implemented elsewhere. Second, it will alleviate the burden on PSPs that already operate in multiple jurisdictions, as the requirements from the Bank of Canada will align broadly with regulations in other parts of the world. Inside the Process Every year, PSPs will be required to submit a standardized template of information t...

    16 min
  6. OCT 15

    Accountants View AI as an Ally, not a Competitor

    Artificial intelligence has had a dramatic effect across industries in a short time. Accounting is no exception, but there has been speculation of whether AI would replace those working in the profession. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Ted Callahan, Accountant Leader at Intuit, and Albert Bodine, Director of Commercial Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research, explored key findings from the 2024 Intuit QuickBooks Accountant Technology Survey and their implications for the accounting sector – including how accountants are interacting with AI. The survey gathered insights from 700 accounting leaders to assess the impact of AI and technology on their firms. Contrasting the Narrative Unsurprisingly, respondents identified the top challenges for accounting firms as maintaining compliance with regulations and tax laws and driving profitability for both their firms and clients in the face of high interest rates and inflation. “What was surprising was that in contrast to a common narrative, accountants don’t view AI as competition,” Callahan said. “Only 9% of the respondents said they were concerned about AI replacing their job. Instead, they felt that embracing technology would help them boost their efficiency and improve their client service.” “In addition, 71% of the surveyed firms said accounting technology solutions were the driving factor in the increased profitability of their clients,” he said. Another key insight from the report revealed that 30% of respondents identified the biggest competitive advantage of technology as its ability to enable customized services and advice through data analysis. “There can be a bit of fearmongering with AI and, in some cases, it can be justified,” Bodine said. “However, I look at areas like cash flow analysis, which can be one of the most difficult things to forecast. As AI tools become more prevalent and integrated into accounting platforms, they can deliver substantial benefits, especially if an organization doesn’t have the staff to perform that kind of analysis.” The Top Priority Partly due to staffing challenges, the accounting industry has embraced AI on a large scale—98% of respondents reporting that they actively use the technology to enhance client service. Additionally, nearly as many (95%) said that adopting new technology is just as important as traditional accounting skills to succeed as an accountant today. AI is also the top priority for new technology investments, according to accounting firm leaders. However, there are three main concerns hindering full-scale AI adoption: security, accuracy, and cost. “Firms are primarily concerned that effective data and security safeguards are in place,” Callahan said. “However, when implementing new technology, accountants must always do stringent checks to make sure the inputs of the process are valid, and the outputs are accurate. Of course, there will always be concerns about how the service will be priced and rolled out in the cost, especially as more experiences become automated.” A Vertical Leap To address these challenges, the broader accounting community can collaborate with clients to drive change through AI.

    21 min
  7. OCT 10

    Prepaid Cards Are Essential Components of Rewards and Incentives Programs

    When the topic is prepaid cards, the store-branded or general-purpose gift cards at grocery stores and retailers might come to mind. However, a substantial number of businesses and organizations continually use prepaid cards for a range of cases, including employee incentives and customer rebates. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Sheryl Shewman, Vice President of Business Development at U.S. Bank, and Jordan Hirschfield, Director of Prepaid at Javelin Strategy & Research, discussed the types of incentive programs and how organizations can leverage them to maximize employee engagement. A Must-Have More companies are offering some form of reward or incentive program. The reasons could be to improve productivity, increase engagement, or retain employees. A company might give a team member a prepaid card to recognize years of service or to show appreciation for hard work. Many organizations also give employees gift cards around the holidays. Many businesses are increasingly giving employees health-and-wellness-oriented prepaid cards. Healthier employees are happier and more productive, and a prepaid card shows them that the employer cares about their well-being. Even little incentives go a long way with a team. According to Hirschfield, Javelin’s data shows that roughly 83% of prepaid card recipients say an incentive increases their satisfaction with their employer. “Over the years, rewards and incentive programs have gone from a nice-to-have to a must-have,” Shewman said. “Prepaid cards are now an integral part of those programs, but organizations are using them for many different functions. They’re being used for payroll cards, for expenses, and even for government disbursements.” Fueling Sales Companies are also increasingly using prepaid cards to drive sales in lieu of monetary rewards. Sales professionals are competitive by nature, and sales performance incentive funds are a great way to fuel their competitive fire. A business could give a prepaid card as a reward for salespeople who achieve their objectives, such as when they meet their monthly quota or sell a specific product. A reward could also be given to the salesperson who cross-sells more products and services. “Whether a company offers an incentive for perfect attendance or a sales accomplishment, there is still plenty of room to improve organizational rewards programs,” Hirschfield said. “According to Javelin’s annual prepaid survey, only 17% of all employees say they get any type of employee incentive. That’s a missed opportunity to establish a program that can benefit both employees and the organization.” Brand Awareness Manufacturers and dealers often give prepaid reward cards to build brand awareness and add value to their products and services. These incentives are best given as a reloadable card so the same customer can receive multiple incentives and loyalty can be built. “At a tire store, there are multiple brands to choose from,” Shewman said. “So a tire manufacturer might give the store’s salespeople an incentive to promote their brand over another. Or it could be that the manufacturer is discontinuing a tire or launching a new product, so they offer a prepaid card to incentivize those purchases.” Manufacturers and dealers might also offer a prepaid card as a rebate, as reimbursement for a product return, or as a reward for participating in a survey. A Special Treat

    19 min
  8. SEP 23

    For ISO 20022, the Time Is Now

    As of March 10, 2025, ISO 20022 will become the messaging standard for financial services in the United States. Yet adoption continues to be slow among large and small banks, with only about a quarter of American banks already using the new protocol. As some have put it, it’s like waiting until the last minute to do your Christmas shopping. Are financial institutions ready for this conversion? In a recent Payments Journal podcast, Laura Sullivan, Senior Product Manager at Form3, spoke with James Wester, Co-Head of Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research, about the challenges and benefits banks are facing. The upshot: It’s up to the banks to determine how they can best take advantage of the new protocol. The anecdotal evidence is that many U.S. financial institutions are ready for ISO 20022. The roughly 7,000 banks that already use Fedwire should be prepared. CHIPS (Clearing House Interbank System) migrated to ISO 20022 in April 2023, so the 30 or so banks using that protocol should be ready, That still leaves a significant number of banks that have work to do. The Missing Killer App One thing that will move the process forward significantly is some sort of “killer app” that will significantly benefit customers while also making use of ISO 200022. “I was on a call today with some experts who were saying that customers need to drive banks to develop products for them, and I think that's a tall order,” Sullivan said. ”Maybe the problem is payments aren't sexy enough. Maybe the young people who are out creating killer apps don't find payments interesting and don't want to create these kinds of apps and delve into the minutiae of ISO 20022.” Many industry people have been waiting for customers to indicate what kind of use cases would get them more excited about ISO 20022. But more realistically, it is incumbent on banks and fintechs to come up with these solutions. There are two versions of successful integrations to ISO 20022. The first step is, can you continue to send and receive messages? Many of the organizations that can say yes to that may think they have completed adoption, but they may still be a long way from utilizing the format to its fullest capability. Adopting the new standard can be the first step toward payment modernization. Many of the systems that support wire transfer today are fairly long in the tooth and not capable of running on the most modern platforms. Some organizations have done the minimum and patched their existing systems to make the ISO conversion. By building on that small step, they can devote more resources to modernizing and ultimately break down some of the silos that exist today in payment processing.  For example, API options work for a wide variety of platforms. “Rather than having discrete operations areas, discrete exception handling, and discrete interfaces to all of your back-office systems, you can leverage a product like the API we offer at Form3 that will work for all of those platforms,” Sullivan said. “It's agnostic to the particular platform. Then we can help you route the payment to a particular rail based on the characteristics.” Organizations can further sharpen their efforts by asking if the bank is the receiving institution on FedNow or the RTP network. Then they can utilize more customer-focused metrics to better gauge how they want the payment to flow. One area where ISO 20022 can present immediate benefits is for customers receiving data from multiple banks. ISO standardizes that process so the institutions aren't getting a different format for their data from every bank.

    22 min
  9. SEP 17

    New Tools for Limiting a Bank’s Exposure to Fraud

    Banks allocate significant resources to fighting fraud, both in prevention and in maintaining reserves for potential losses. No matter how good the performance is, fraud losses remain a burden on their balance sheets. Instnt, under the leadership of CEO and founder Sunil Madhu, has been at the forefront of developing innovative ways to combat bank fraud. Madhu recently sat down with Tracy Kitten, Director of Fraud and Security at Javelin Strategy & Research, in a recent PaymentsJournal podcast to talk about the kind of fraud he’s seeing now, and what banks can do to stop it. A Fraud for Each Silo Banks have traditionally had to address various types of fraud in different areas of their operations. For example, first-party and stolen ID fraud are common in lending, while checking and savings accounts are vulnerable to fake ID fraud. Credit cards face challenges with e-commerce fraud, and the bank itself may encounter ACH and chargeback reversal fraud.  To fight this, each line of business puts together its own toolbox pattern. To stop the fraud risk while keeping compliant, each line of business assembles half a dozen vendor tools and data providers from the industry, which they then implement in an orchestration waterfall.  Regardless of how good each of those tools are, the overall toolbox performance is generally very poor. Banks constantly have to retool that toolbox to keep abreast of the different types of fraud. This is how the businesses have been operating for a very long time—in their own operational silos.  Too many financial institutions have come to see fraud as just part of doing business.  “But it's not just about the fraud loss,” Kitten said. “It's also about are you funding a terrorist organization? Is there something else behind some of these transactions that you as a financial services entity should be doing the due diligence on?  It's not going to be long, whether it's in the decision or the Court of public decision or something legislative that comes down before financial institutions are going to be held accountable.” Challenges from Changing Technology Fraudsters are increasingly leveraging automation to expand their reach and impact. For instance, a scammer might use a collection of stolen or fake IDs to target numerous businesses, hoping to breach the security of at least one or two. The financial industry is particularly susceptible to synthetic ID fraud, where fraudsters use fake IDs to open up new accounts and evade detection. In cases of third-party fraud, perpetrators can easily purchase identities of legitimate taxpayers online for minimal cost, bypassing a financial institution’s verification processes.  Within the lending industry, first-party fraud or credit defaults are significant concerns. Compliance regulations like Basel III require financial institutions maintain capital reserves to offset losses from first-party fraud. The requirement ties up capital that could otherwise be deployed for productive purposes within the institution. “This is very expensive and inefficient use of resources of the institution, and we're not talking, but small change here,” said Madhu. “We're talking about hundreds of million or even billions of dollars in terms of first-party f...

    21 min
  10. SEP 12

    As ATMs Do More, Financial Institutions Require Sophisticated Solutions

    The ATM industry has undergone a dynamic shift that has taken automated teller machines far beyond cash dispensation. As the number of bank branches has declined, both banks and consumers expect ATMs to provide a wide array of services that were once only offered at a teller’s counter. In response to the increased demand for ATM services, financial services company NCR recently split into two separate entities—NCR Atleos and NCR Voyix—with NCR Atleos overseeing the company’s substantial ATM ecosystem. Shortly thereafter, NCR Atleos reached an agreement with BHMI to resell the Concourse Financial Software Suite® as part of its software portfolio. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Robert Johnston, Product Marketing Director at NCR Atleos, Casey Scheer, Director of Marketing at BHMI, and Elisa Tavilla, Director of Debit at Javelin Strategy & Research, discussed the NCR Atleos/BHMI partnership and its impact on a shifting ATM landscape. Mirroring Functionality In addition to the services of a brick-and-mortar bank, consumers increasingly expect ATMs to mirror the functionality of the digital banking environment. Some banks have reached the point where they can replicate their entire mobile banking experience on their ATMs. “Even as payment and banking behaviors have shifted, ATMs have stayed relevant,” Tavilla said. “About three-quarters of respondents in Javelin’s annual North American Payments Insights Survey said that ease of finding and accessing an ATM significantly affects their satisfaction with their bank.” Meeting these rising expectations is easier said than done—it requires creating connectivity to systems beyond conventional ATM rails. For example, to give consumers access to all their accounts, the ATM must connect to a bank’s core banking system. Platforms like Authentic from NCR Atleos can serve as the hub that connects core banking systems, other services within the bank, and even third-party services provided by companies like fintechs. The Front-End Authentic is part of NCR Atleos’ ATM Management Platform (AMP) which offers a cloud-based suite of ATM management modules that includes the entire software stack required to operate an ATM. This includes the customer-facing application within the ATM, as well as cash management, device management, and security management software. A cloud-based solution, Authentic gives banks a high-performance transaction processing and payment settlement solution that’s scalable. It’s also agile, with productivity tools which allow for rapid adoption of new services and products. “Many of the traditional companies used to embed an ATM terminal handler within their product and now they’re stepping back from that,” Johnston said. “The Authentic platform provides one that's not just a replacement; it’s a completely new level of technology for that function. We've also launched a new card management system based on Authentic that gets us closer to an end-to-end processing environment.” The Back Office The functionality of a platform like Authentic is substantially enhanced when paired with a back office processing software solution like BHMI’s Concourse Financial Software Suite. In this model, once a transaction is authorized by a consumer, it flows into Authentic for authorization. Once authorized,

About

The PaymentsJournal Podcast is a podcast that features payment and banking industry professionals throughout the value chain discussing relevant payment and banking topics. If you have a topic you would like us to cover or would like to be on the podcast please reach out to us at info@paymentsjournal.com

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