Payments On Tap

Episode Summary

In this episode of Payments on Tap, host Elyssa Morgan sits down with Stephanie Prebish, AAP, AFPP, APRP, CTP, Senior Managing Director of Association Services at Nacha, for the Women in Leadership: Payments Edition series. Their conversation centers on the connective tissue of the payments industry—relationships, collaboration, and the often‑invisible work that sustains trust at scale.

Stephanie reflects on her career journey and her role overseeing membership, education, accreditation, and conferences at Nacha. She shares how leadership in payments is less about individual visibility and more about building systems, communities, and shared standards that allow the ecosystem to function. From stewarding national accreditation programs to guiding industry‑wide convenings, her work illustrates how influence is built through consistency, credibility, and long‑term commitment.

Rather than focusing on disruption for its own sake, the episode highlights the value of continuity, collaboration, and institutional memory. Stephanie argues that the future of payments leadership depends on people who understand both the infrastructure and the relationships behind it—and who are willing to invest in the industry as a collective, not just as competitors.

Guest‑at‑a‑glance

💡 Name: Stephanie Prebish, AAP, AFPP, APRP, CTP
💡 What she does: Senior Managing Director, Association Services
💡 Company: Nacha
💡 Noteworthy: Oversees membership, education, accreditation programs, conferences, and sales at Nacha; has played a central role in shaping industry education and professional standards, including national accreditation programs and the Smarter Faster Payments Conference
💡 Where to find her: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-prebish-aap-afpp-aprp-ctp-259b336/

Key Insights

Leadership in payments is built through connection, not spotlight

Stephanie’s career underscores a quieter form of leadership—one rooted in enabling others. From education programs to industry conferences, much of her work happens behind the scenes, creating spaces where collaboration and shared learning can happen. The takeaway for financial institutions is that leadership does not always look like innovation headlines. Often, it looks like sustained investment in people, standards, and relationships that allow the system to evolve without breaking.

Industry progress depends on shared infrastructure and trust

Payments only work when participants agree on Rules, expectations, and accountability. Stephanie’s role at Nacha highlights how trade associations and industry bodies serve as connective infrastructure, aligning diverse stakeholders around common goals. This perspective reframes leadership as stewardship: maintaining trust, updating frameworks, and ensuring the ecosystem moves forward together rather than fragmenting under pressure.

Education and accreditation shape long‑term resilience

One of the strongest themes in the conversation is the importance of professional development. Accreditation programs and industry education do more than validate skills—they create a common language and baseline of understanding across institutions. For leaders, this is a reminder that resilience is not just about technology investment, but about preparing people to manage complexity, risk, and change over time.

Episode Highlights

Building the industry together
Stephanie describes her role overseeing association services at Nacha, emphasizing how membership, education, conferences, and accreditation all serve a single purpose: strengthening the payments ecosystem through connection and shared understanding.

“I oversee membership, education, conferences, accreditation and sales—pretty much everything that Nacha does as a trade association.”

Why collaboration outlasts disruption
The conversation turns to how the payments industry has evolved over decades, with progress driven less by isolated breakthroughs and more by sustained collaboration among financial institutions, networks, and industry groups.

Leadership beyond titles
Stephanie reflects on leadership as influence without formal authority—shaping outcomes by bringing people together, aligning interests, and keeping the long view in focus.

Episode Summary

In this episode of Payments on Tap, host Elyssa Morgan, sits down with Nasreen Quibria, Senior Vice President of International Advisory at PNC Bank, for a wide‑ranging conversation on leadership, career growth, and the evolving infrastructure of payments.

Nasreen reflects on her unconventional path into financial services, from early roles in risk management to leadership positions across the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Visa, ICBA, and global consulting. She shares how intellectual curiosity, technical depth, and preparation shaped her confidence in rooms where she did not always feel she belonged.

The discussion also explores how digital assets, real‑time liquidity, AI‑driven fraud detection, and programmable payments are reshaping the “plumbing” of money. Nasreen emphasizes that while innovation continues to accelerate, payments leadership requires grounding in fundamentals, governance, and cross‑functional understanding. Her message to the next generation is clear: master the infrastructure, raise your hand early, and build influence through knowledge and relationships.

Guest‑at‑a‑Glance

💡 Name: Nasreen Quibria
💡 What she does: Senior Vice President, International Advisory
💡 Company: PNC Bank
💡 Noteworthy: Nasreen has spent more than two decades across global financial services, including leadership roles at Visa, ICBA, CGI, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. She is a co‑inventor on two AI patents and has led initiatives spanning payments modernization, digital assets, and policy.
💡 Where to find her: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nasreenquibria/

Key Insights

Technical depth creates leadership confidence

Nasreen describes how early career challenges shaped her leadership style, particularly moments when she entered rooms where she did not match expectations. A mentor’s advice to “know more than anyone else in the room” became a defining principle. Deep preparation gave her confidence, sharpened her questions, and changed how others perceived her presence. The takeaway is simple but powerful: mastery of the material builds authority, especially in complex fields like payments.

Mentors prepare you; sponsors open doors

The conversation draws an important distinction between mentors and sponsors. Mentors offer guidance, feedback, and support, helping individuals get ready for opportunities. Sponsors, however, actively advocate by putting their reputation on the line and creating those opportunities. Nasreen credits both roles with shaping her career, emphasizing that sponsorship often happens behind the scenes but can be career‑defining when leaders speak your name in rooms you are not yet in.

Digital assets are reshaping the plumbing of money movement

While opinions on cryptocurrencies and stablecoins remain polarized, Nasreen reframes the discussion around infrastructure rather than hype. Digital assets, tokenized deposits, and real‑time settlement are already forcing financial institutions to rethink liquidity, settlement timing, and interoperability. The real shift is not about replacement but about how these technologies are quietly changing how money moves beneath the surface.

Always‑on payments change liquidity management

The expansion of 24/7 payment rails brings opportunity but also operational complexity. From a corporate treasury perspective, always‑on payments require new forecasting models, real‑time visibility, and retooled cash management practices. Payments teams must move away from batch thinking and toward continuous liquidity awareness as speed becomes the baseline expectation.

Episode Highlights

Preparation is power
Nasreen reflects on early career advice that reshaped how she showed up in leadership settings. Knowing the material deeply changed not only how she felt entering the room, but how others responded to her presence.

“Preparation is power. When you know your material deeply, you carry yourself differently.”

Payments sit at the intersection of everything
From corporate treasury to global policy, Nasreen explains how payments touch technology, regulation, geopolitics, and human behavior. That layered perspective is what keeps the field endlessly interesting and constantly evolving.

“Payments sit at the intersection of technology, policy, commerce, and human behavior.”

Digital assets bring promise—and work
Stablecoins and tokenized deposits may promise faster, cheaper cross‑border flows, but they also raise critical questions about regulation, settlement finality, and integration with existing correspondent banking structures. Progress will require significant groundwork before scale becomes reality.

Advice for the next generation
Nasreen closes with practical advice for women entering payments or stepping into leadership roles: master the infrastructure, raise your hand before you feel fully ready, and build relationships across the ecosystem.

“Payments might not look glamorous, but it’s one of the most consequential industries in the global economy. Master the plumbing and you’ll have real influence.”

Episode Summary

In this special Women in Leadership edition of Payments on Tap, host Elyssa Morgan sits down with Angela Murphy, Ph.D.—widely known across the industry as “Payments Elsa.” Angela shares her unconventional journey into payments, from academia to fintech, and the moments of uncertainty, advocacy, and grit that shaped her career.

Angela reflects on entering an industry filled with acronyms, assumptions, and unspoken rules—and how curiosity, relentless learning, and asking questions became her superpower. She discusses the role of mentorship and sponsorship, the difference between authority and influence, and why confidence doesn’t come from titles but from preparation and perspective.

Throughout the conversation, Angela offers practical advice for professionals—especially women mid‑career—who feel stuck or unsure of their next step. Her message is clear: growth doesn’t require a leap. It starts with one question, one conversation, and one small step forward.

Guest‑at‑a‑glance

💡 Name: Angela Murphy, Ph.D. (“Payments Elsa”)
💡 What she does: Vice President of Marketing & Solutions
💡 Company: Pigeon
💡 Noteworthy: Recognized with the 2024 Paytech Women Emerging Trendsetter Award; creator of the “Payments Elsa” brand and host of the Icebreakers in FinTech podcast
💡 Where to find her: LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and Icebreakers in FinTech

Key Insights

Curiosity and questions are career accelerators

Angela’s entry into payments did not follow a traditional path. With a Ph.D. in rhetoric and no formal background in financial services, she entered the industry knowing “absolute zero.” What carried her forward was not prior expertise, but curiosity and the willingness to ask questions. She studied relentlessly, used flashcards to learn industry language, and paid close attention in rooms where she initially felt out of place. Her experience underscores a critical lesson: in payments, growth often belongs to those who ask questions early and often, not those who wait to feel “ready.”

Mentorship opens doors, but sponsorship changes trajectories

Throughout her career, Angela benefited from mentors who answered questions—but also sponsors who actively pulled her into rooms she would not have entered on her own. These advocates saw her potential before she fully saw it herself. That early exposure created learning moments that accelerated her confidence and competence. Angela emphasizes that leaders have a responsibility to create environments where questions are safe, curiosity is welcomed, and emerging voices are invited into conversations that shape decisions.

Influence outlasts authority in leadership

Angela draws a clear distinction between authority and influence. Titles and tenure may create authority, but influence comes from understanding others, sharing information, and inviting dialogue. She argues that leaders who rely solely on “because I said so” thinking limit progress, while those who engage with empathy and facts help move the industry forward. In payments—where collaboration across institutions, technologies, and perspectives is essential—true leadership depends on influence, not hierarchy.

Confidence can be anchored, not invented

Rather than viewing confidence as something people either have or lack, Angela reframes it as something that can be anchored. She encourages professionals to identify areas in their personal lives where they already feel knowledgeable and self‑assured, and to borrow from that certainty when entering unfamiliar professional situations. Confidence, in this view, is not bravado—it is preparation, perspective, and grounding yourself in what you know.

Progress happens one step at a time

For professionals feeling stuck, Angela’s advice is practical and accessible. Career growth does not require sweeping change or a perfect plan. It starts with a single action: asking one question in a meeting, commenting thoughtfully on a LinkedIn post, exploring a certification, or requesting professional development support. Over time, these small actions compound into meaningful momentum. The key is movement, not perfection.

Episode Highlights

Breaking into payments without a roadmap
Timestamp: ~00:01:40

Angela shares how she transitioned from academia into payments by reframing her skills around strategy and insight. With no formal payments background, she relied on networking, self‑reflection, and the willingness to ask others how they would position her experience.

“If you had this resume, what would you say? How would you talk about this skillset?”

Learning the language of payments
Timestamp: ~00:07:00

Angela describes the steep learning curve of entering an industry full of acronyms and assumptions—and how disciplined study and curiosity helped her find her footing.

“You don’t go to college for payments. Who’s going to teach you?”

The power of being invited into the room
Timestamp: ~00:11:00

A mentor’s decision to bring Angela into high‑level meetings became a defining moment in her career. Sitting quietly, taking notes, and asking questions afterward allowed her to grow into spaces she once felt unsure she belonged.

“That was probably the greatest gift she ever gave me.”

Confidence, facts, and closing the deal
Timestamp: ~00:14:00

Angela recalls negotiating with a major payments provider while questioning whether she belonged at the table. Preparation and a focus on facts helped her navigate fear and succeed.

“Stick to the facts.”

Authority versus influence in leadership
Timestamp: ~00:28:00

Angela challenges traditional notions of leadership, arguing that influence—not authority—is what drives real progress in payments.

“If you can influence the decisions of others with understanding, with kindness, and with information, that is worth all of the authority in the world.”

Advice for women navigating the next step
Timestamp: ~00:31:40

Angela closes the episode with guidance for women who feel stuck or uncertain about their careers, emphasizing small, manageable actions over overwhelming leaps.

“You can. It starts with the tiniest of steps.”

Episode Summary 

In this episode of Wrestling Payments, host Elyssa Morgan sits down with Sanjiv Sanghvi and Stephen Coburn from Avalo Holdings. Together, they explore how financial institutions can shift compliance from a cost center to a source of growth by embracing a Know Your Customer’s Customer (KYCC) approach. Sanjiv and Stephen explain why moving from institution-level trust to transaction-level verification helps banks and credit unions unlock new fee income and low-cost deposits—without needing to overhaul their core systems. 

Sanjiv highlights the blind spots in the traditional model, where banks rely on their clients’ compliance controls instead of verifying each transaction’s parties and purpose. By digging into the details of each transaction and sharing information across institutions, banks can reduce false positives, lower compliance costs, and build stronger defenses against risk. Stephen adds that new technology enables these changes without massive capital investment. Tools now exist to help even small banks efficiently serve fintech and correspondent banking partners. 

For leaders facing squeezed margins and rising costs, Sanjiv and Stephen offer a clear message: meaningful growth requires a deliberate strategy, cross-team buy-in, and the right technology. They urge institutions to define their goals, work closely with compliance teams, and build new lines of business that can scale. When compliance becomes a competitive edge, banks can create lasting value for both their customers and their bottom line. 

Guest-at-a-glance 

💡 Name: Sanjiv Sanghvi
💡 What they do: Board Member
💡 Company: Avalo Holdings
💡 Noteworthy: Sanjiv brings decades of banking experience and specializes in helping financial institutions turn compliance and payment operations into business growth opportunities.
💡 Where to find him: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanjiv-sanghvi 

💡 Name: Stephen Coburn
💡 What they do: Founder and CEO
💡 Company: Avalo Holdings
💡 Noteworthy: Stephen leads technology and solutions for banks, focusing on enabling fintech and correspondent banking partnerships through practical compliance and risk management tools.
💡 Where to find him: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephencoburn/ 

Key Insights 

Compliance Can Drive Growth, Not Just Cost
Many financial institutions still see compliance as a burden—something that drains resources and slows business. This view is outdated. By shifting from institution-level trust to transaction-level verification, banks and credit unions can turn compliance into a business driver. Using Know Your Customer’s Customer (KYCC) methods, teams can see beyond their immediate clients and assess risk at the transaction level. This approach opens doors to new business lines, such as fintech and correspondent banking partnerships, which can bring in low-cost deposits and fee income. When compliance becomes an active part of growth strategy, it helps organizations build trust, reduce risk, and compete for new opportunities without overhauling their core systems. In today’s market, turning compliance into a revenue engine is not just possible—it’s essential. 

Transaction-Level Data Cuts Risk and False Positives
Legacy compliance tools often create more problems than they solve. High false positive rates and alert fatigue waste time and tie up staff. The root cause is a lack of context—systems only see basic information, like names and addresses, rather than the full picture of each transaction. When banks and fintechs share detailed data about the parties and purposes behind each payment, risk teams can spot real threats and let legitimate business move faster. Transaction-level data supports better due diligence, reduces compliance costs, and strengthens defenses against fraud and money laundering. By moving past surface checks and relying on richer information, financial institutions can focus on real risks and stop wasting resources on cluttered alerts. 

Growth Requires Focus, Buy-In, and the Right Tech
Chasing too many new ideas at once leads to scattered results and missed targets. For compliance-driven business lines to make a real impact, banks need a clear strategy and the right people involved from day one. That means setting specific growth goals, involving compliance and risk teams early, and building a business case everyone can support. Technology no longer needs to be a barrier—modern platforms can run alongside core banking systems and connect through simple APIs, rather than requiring an expensive overhaul. When institutions focus on a meaningful market, invest in the right tools, and commit to scaling what works, compliance-driven growth becomes achievable. Success follows when leaders align on purpose, plan for scale, and use technology to make smarter, safer decisions. 

Episode Highlights 

Flipping the Compliance Script: From Cost to Revenue 

00:00:44 – 00:01:41[Text Wrapping Break]The episode opens with a direct challenge to the old view of compliance as a back-office burden. The discussion reframes compliance as a potential revenue driver for banks, credit unions, and fintechs. By shifting from institution-level trust to transaction-level verification—through Know Your Customer’s Customer (KYCC) practices—organizations can create new growth opportunities. This approach not only builds stronger compliance programs but also unlocks new deposit and fee income streams, even allowing for deposit growth without added cost. The message is clear: institutions that treat compliance as only a cost are missing out on significant business value. 

"Today we're flipping the compliance conversation on its head. So, whether you're a $500 million community financial institution or a global institution, the challenge is the same. How do you turn compliance from a cost center

Episode Summary

In the debut episode of Payments on Tap, host Elyssa Morgan sits down with Kevin Johnston, Chief Banking Officer at Braid Technologies, to unpack what it really takes for community banks and credit unions to build defensible, scalable FinTech partnerships. Kevin draws on his firsthand experience as former COO of Portage Bank in Seattle — a tiny $11 million charter he and four partners acquired out of Minnesota and grew into a high-performing institution with an active FinTech integration program. The conversation is grounded in data from NEACH's 2025 FinTech Collaboration Survey, which revealed a stark gap: 72% of financial institutions see FinTech partnerships as critical to growth, but only 28% feel prepared to execute them.

Kevin walks through the hard lessons learned from his early, admittedly naive foray into hosting wallets for a social media company — including the moment he realized the partner could change KYC thresholds without the bank's knowledge. That experience became the catalyst for what Braid Technologies builds today: software infrastructure that puts the bank in control of rules, compliance triggers, and transaction monitoring rather than relying on intermediary layers or legal agreements as the primary safeguard. The conversation covers everything from BSA backlogs and OFAC clearing to why middle managers should see FinTech integration as a career-building opportunity, not a burden.

Elyssa and Kevin also preview the FinTech Integration Leadership Series launching this spring — a cohort-based executive program co-developed by NEACH and Braid Technologies that delivers policy templates, role charters, decision matrices, and a complete collaboration playbook. The episode makes a compelling case that the institutions most at risk aren't the ones moving too fast into FinTech — they're the ones standing still while the playbook gap widens.

Guest-at-a-Glance

Kevin Johnston

• Role: Chief Banking Officer
• Company: Braid Technologies, Inc.
• Background: Former COO of Portage Bank in Seattle, which he co-acquired as an $11 million charter out of Minnesota and helped grow to over $100 million in assets. Trained as an attorney (Gonzaga Law), Kevin transitioned into commercial lending and eventually bank ownership before pivoting to FinTech infrastructure. His experience building a payments program from scratch at a community bank — including navigating regulatory scrutiny, BSA compliance gaps, and partner control failures — directly informs Braid Technologies' approach to putting banks in control of FinTech integrations. Kevin joined Braid Technologies in October 2024 to educate institutions on building internal FinTech programs.

Key Insights

The Bank Must Own the Controls — Not Just the Contract

One of the most consequential insights Kevin shares is that financial institutions have historically over-indexed on legal agreements as their primary risk mitigation tool for FinTech partnerships while under-investing in operational and software-level controls. He recounts conversations with other bank CEOs who would proudly reference their legal agreements as their primary defense — which struck him as fundamentally backward. If enforcement of a contract is your plan for when something goes wrong, the control failure has already occurred. The real safeguard is software architecture that prevents unauthorized changes — like a partner adjusting KYC thresholds without the bank's knowledge — from ever taking effect. This reframing is critical for community bank leaders evaluating their current FinTech relationships: the question isn't whether your legal team has covered every angle, but whether your technology gives you real-time visibility and rule-setting authority over the program.

FinTech Integration Is Intensification, Not Invention

Kevin makes a deceptively simple but powerful point: community banks are already doing nearly everything a FinTech partnership requires — BSA monitoring, vendor management, ACH processing, compliance reporting. The difference is one of intensity and scale, not of kind. This reframing matters enormously for the 50% of survey respondents who said they don't know where to start. The starting point isn't learning an entirely new discipline; it's asking how existing competencies need to be strengthened and scaled to support higher transaction volumes, more complex counterparty relationships, and increased regulatory scrutiny. For institutions paralyzed by the perceived complexity of FinTech integration, this insight lowers the psychological barrier to entry while raising the bar on operational rigor — exactly the right combination.

The "Paper Walls" Between Banks and FinTechs Are Thinner Than Either Side Believes

Kevin introduces the concept of "paper walls" — the mutual assumption between banks and FinTechs that the other side possesses expertise or sophistication that is, in reality, far more accessible than either party imagines. Banks assume FinTechs have impenetrable technical knowledge; FinTechs assume banks have compliance infrastructure that is more robust than it often is. In practice, most FinTechs will not have a complete application packet, will lack key compliance policies, and will need to grow alongside the bank. This mutual demystification is strategically important because it rebalances the power dynamic: community banks don't need to approach FinTech partnerships from a position of intimidation. They bring the charter, the regulatory standing, and the compliance muscle. The FinTech brings distribution and technology. Neither is complete without the other, and recognizing this creates the foundation for a genuine partnership rather than a dependent relationship.

Community Banking's Relationship Model Is Its FinTech Advantage

Perhaps the most counterintuitive insight in the episode is that the very thing community banks are known for — deep, relationship-driven client engagement — is precisely what makes them well-suited for FinTech partnerships. Kevin draws a direct parallel between managing a commercial lending relationship and managing a FinTech partner: both require consistent communication, trust built through transparency, and a genuine understanding of the counterparty's business. FinTechs want sticky, reliable bank partners they can build with over time, not transactional arrangements. Institutions that treat FinTech integration like vendor procurement will get vendor-quality outcomes. Those that treat it like their best commercial banking relationship — with regular touchpoints, mutual accountability, and long-term commitment — will build programs that generate durable revenue and defensible competitive positioning.

Episode Highlights

The $11 Million Charter That Couldn't Disclose APRs

~03:00–04:30 Kevin describes the state of the bank when his group acquired it — an $11 million institution in a town of 300 people that was producing loan documents on a typewriter and couldn't correctly disclose APRs due to outdated systems, effectively locking itself out of consumer lending entirely. The nine-month rebuild that followed — replacing core systems, documentation, and compliance infrastructure — became the foundation for everything that came after. This moment matters because it illustrates that FinTech integration doesn't require starting from a position of strength; it requires a willingness to rebuild from the ground up and a clear-eyed assessment of institutional gaps.

"This institution was a problem for the local area because with the growth in regulation, it had not been able to keep up. And so they could not disclose APRs correctly. And that meant a lot of consumer loans were actually completely off limits to this little charter when we bought it."