IPA Payments Pod

When we think of consumer financial data, the first thing that comes to mind is usually banking data, but that is an incomplete picture.  

This was borne out in a recent executive order, in which the Biden Administration encouraged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to issue rules allowing customers to download their banking data and take it with them.  

Increasingly portability of banking data can help consumers, but a more robust picture can be painted by making sure consumers have easy access to their own payroll data as well, says Lindsay, Davis, the head of markets for Atomic Financial. 

In this episode, we discuss the importance of payroll data and how better access to it can improve the lives of consumers and make things easier for businesses and financial services companies.  

You can find the fact sheet on the executive order here. The full text of the order can be found here.  

You can learn more about Atomic here.  

Capitol Hill has been taking an active interest in the payments industry. Overdraft, buy now pay later products, and even a possible computer chip shortage have all drawn lawmakers’ attention.

On top of all that, the Durbin Amendment has resurfaced as a topic of conversation, and there are rumors that it may be extended to other types of payments.

We cover all of this and more with the IPA’s CEO, Brian Tate, and our Government Relations Director, Grant Hannah.

To learn more about the forces shaping the payments industry, we encourage our listeners to join the IPA for its Summer of Learning Webinar series, where we talk with regulators, industry leaders, and analysts about what they see coming in the world of payments innovation. Learn more and register at www.ipa.org.

The pandemic created problems for individuals, governments, and businesses, but as the old saying goes, every problem brings new opportunities.  

For Blackhawk Network, that opportunity began when it channeled its payments expertise into helping distribute relief money for governments and nonprofits. It used both closed-loop and open-loop prepaid cards as a way to deliver aid. The plastic and virtual cards were used to replace checks so that people could get access to funds quickly and inexpensively.  

As the pandemic begins to subside, Blackhawk plans to continue working to deliver funds to vulnerable populations. The company has created a new vertical that it calls Payments for Good to work with governments and nonprofits who need new ways to disburse money.  

In this episode, we talk with Tyler Gentry, the director of Payments for Good, about the work that led to its creation and the company’s future plans.   

Keeping up with financial regulations can be a tough job for anyone.

The Innovative Payments Association is here to help our members – and the payments industry at large – keep track of laws and rules that could affect their businesses. We also give a voice to the industry, so they can talk to regulators and legislators to help foster an environment where companies can continue to innovate and grow as they help individuals and businesses meet their financial goals.

In this episode, Brian Tate, the IPA’s chief executive officer, and Grant Hannah, the director of government relations, talk about potential legislation and regulation at both the state and federal level, and we discuss lawsuits that will affect the industry.

Members wanting to learn more, should plan to join our weekly and monthly government relations calls. We also welcome direct questions from our members. Nonmembers can visit www.ipa.org to learn how to join. 

As the fintech industry continue to innovate, one of the big questions is where does it go from here?

The future direction of the industry may be best represented by a company that has gone through its evolution. Green Dot is one of the original Fintechs. It started with prepaid cards sold mostly through retail and has since evolved into a leader in the digital bank space.

In this episode, we talk with Greg Quarles, president of Green Dot Bank about how the company has evolved to work with tech partners like Apple, Google, and Uber. We also discuss the advantages of having a bank charter, and why other fintechs will need to consider adding products like lending if they want to thrive in the long run.

Over the last 18 months, the dramatic changes in the ways that people live, work, and pay have meant that fraud prevention rules that were once very effective have lost some of their power.  

In this episode, we talk with Brian Grech, vice president of sales and marketing for Deep Labs, which uses persona-based artificial intelligence to predict behavior and prevent fraud. We cover how the pandemic created new risks that were not covered by old models, so what once looked like fraud could be a legitimate transaction, and what once looked legitimate could be fraud.  

We also talk about what artificial intelligence is and how it can help companies adapt to rapidly changing environments.

The regulatory environment for payments has become very active over the past few weeks, with proposed rules, congressional hearings, and even lawsuits. In this episode of the IPA Payments Pod, our CEO, Brian Tate, and our Government Relations Director, Grant Hannah, help to make sense of everything.  

There are proposed rules on transaction routing and advertising FDIC insurance. There is a lawsuit over interchange fees. And a major fintech was sanctioned in two states for its advertising. This is all just the tip of the iceberg  

To stay in the know, subscribe to this podcast and make sure to attend the IPA-member government relations calls. If you are not a member, visit www.ipa.org to learn how to join.  

Ask anyone who the core audience is for digital banks, the answer will be “millennials,” “young people,” or some variation on that theme – basically “the kids!” 

A study by MetaBank reveals that conventional wisdom is only partially right. The digital banking audience includes several groups of people, and there are opportunities for both traditional banks and the new generation of challenger banks. 

In the latest episode of the IPA Payments Pod, we talk about the findings of the study with Whitney Woyke, senior vice president of partner engagement with MetaBank. We cover the main findings of the study, what they mean for banks looking for customers, and how the pandemic has shaped customer behavior. 

Listeners can find the full study here: The Digital Migration: Growing Share of Banking ebook2 - Meta Payments 

Whitney also moderated a panel about the future of banking as a service at the IPA’s virtual Innovative Payments conference on April 12. Whitney also moderated a panel about the future of Banking as a service at the IPA’s virtual Innovative Payments conference on April 12. The panel included Alex Kostecki, co-founder and COO of Clair, Kelly Knutson, president of Netspend, Patrick Williams, vice president of emerging payment solutions and debit processing sales for Visa, and Jenny Johnston, head of bank partnerships for Modern Treasury. If you would like to purchase access to the full recording of the session, contact us at [email protected]. 

As online shopping and remote payments grew over the past year, so did the number of customer disputes over payments. While many of the disputes were legitimate, some were fraudulent – either by people attempting to get out of paying for something they bought or by organized rings of criminals attempting to hack a company through social engineering.  

In this episode, we talk about these problems and how payments companies can manage them with Corey Besaw, the banking operations president for Ubiquity. 

He talks about best practices for handling disputes including: 

1. Prioritizing dispute cases, 

1. Setting investigation thresholds,  

1. Working with third parties such as ATM operators and merchants. 

He brings together the experiences of many of their customers and talks about some of the common pitfalls and practices that have worked to avoid them. He also gets into considerations around using tools like artificial intelligence. 

As people’s lives become more digital and they add more connected devices to their lives, their risks for identity theft, fraud, and other cyber-crime grows.  

The average person is often unaware of, or unprepared to, manage all of these risks. To help address this issue, Consumer Reports, a nonprofit focused on consumer protection and education, has created the Security Planner. The site helps individuals create a personal plan for protecting themselves and their devices by asking them a series of questions and presenting them with a checklist of steps to take. 

In this episode, we speak with Yael Grauer, the lead content creator for the planner, about how it was created, who it is designed to help, and how it works. We also talk about some of the best practices that people can follow while navigating cyberspace.  

The planner is a free resource, and one that companies can share with their customers if they want to provide resources on protecting against fraud.