The AFT podcast: At the Forefront of Transactions | Payments | Fintech | Pay-tech | Banking

In this episode I have interviewed not one, but TWO experts on card issuance.

Mark Alexander - Head of Issuing at Moov Financial.

Steve Kaufman - Lead Technical Analyst at Moov Financial.

Here is my article that goes deep into card processing (not issuing) that you can find on Finextra: https://www.finextra.com/blogposting/30774/vip-base-ii-sms-dms-interchange-fee-assignment-interchange-downgrades-assessment-fees-and-m

A great quote from Mark Alexander from the episode: “Amazon can deliver a package to your door faster than the US can settle money online”

Disclaimer: this episode is intended for educational purposes only. Product capabilities and implementation details may change over time. For the most current information about Moov's products and services, please visit moov.io.

Joel Tosi, the CTO at Moov Financial in this episode talks about the importance of building sustainable payments infrastructure, the future of PSPs, implications of being a tech-first PSP and more!

Documentation MCP server (for AI to ingest): https://docs.moov.io/guides/developer-tools/mcp-ai/docs-mcp/

Follow our Substack: https://aftfinance.substack.com/

Pelle Braendgaard CEO of Notabene in this episode talks about their solution and how do communication protocols really look like.

Notabene allows crypto transactions to carry the information required by the regulators across the globe, making crypto more accessible for business use-cases.

Follow my substack with in-depth articles on payments infrastructure! https://aftfinance.substack.com/

In this episode, Adam Shannon, a Founding Engineer at Moov Financial talks about direct integrations with The Clearing House and the Fed. What are the implications of such connections, how do they benefit the end user, improve the flow of funds and who should concern themselves with such connections.

Clarification regarding our comments about settlement delays: we talk about payment infrastructure at a high level in this episode, and some examples of settlement timing are simplified. Payments are still required to move through regulated financial institutions and sponsor banks.

Follow our Substack here: https://aftfinance.substack.com/

Some of the topics that were covered:

• How does ACH/RTP/FedNow work in general? Structure of fund flow and settlement.

• What does it mean to connect directly with TCH/Fed?

• How does that actually work and what’s the benefit?

• Who compiles the transaction files in this case and where is the sponsor bank playing a role?

In this episode, I spoke with Johnny Moreland who covers the core topics that serve as the introduction to the 9-episode long in-depth dive into the payments ecosystem. We will heavily focus on Moov Financial as the case-study since it has accomplished a lot in this sector (like direct connections to Fed and TCH) and because I now work at Moov:)

Clarification: during this interview it was mentioned that Stripe doesn't connect directly to the card networks. This information is outdated and Stripe does, in fact, connect directly into all 4 major card networks in the US.

Questions that were covered during the interview:

• Tell us about yourself and Moov
• What IS Moov?
• Payment Processor VS Payment Service Provider
• The legalities of it: what is required of a processor vs PSP
• Payment Processors are controlled very similar to banks, what are the differences?
• Comparison of Moov to FIS and other core-like businesses

As always, don't forget to follow my substack for more deep dives: https://aftfinance.substack.com/

Keith Raphael, Found and CEO of Straddle in this episode talks about compliance requirements for organizations that move money. We go over the specific examples and go in-depth into each scenario that triggers specific compliance requirements.

Key takeaways from the episode:

Reg E only applies to consumer transactions

Reg Z is applied to debt instruments belonging to the individual consumer.

Reg E is applied any time the consumer account is debited electronically. 

Reg E is the safety net that makes consumers comfortable about the banking system. Specifically it offers proper protocols that forces everyone to abide by.

Reg E forces the FI or a payment processor or a marketplace owner - whoever is interacting directly with the customer, has to cover the transactions that are claimed as fraudulent by the consumer while they are under the investigation by the bank.

"You can't be too small for the AML rules". Whoever you are and whatever your intentions are, if you participate in the money laundering of any form (even if unintentionally), you will be punished.

If an entity is acting as an agent of the payee, they don't have to adhere to the same regulations as an MSB. FinCEN Payment processor exemption allows some money flows to not be considered as Money Transmitters.

The moment we are talking about storing value for an individual, processing P2P transactions - think MTL requirements.

Article on FBO accounts issued through Omnibus accounts through sponsor banks: https://open.substack.com/pub/aftfinance/p/what-are-omnibus-accounts?r=8gvix&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

CDD = Customer Due Diligence 

My favorite quote from Keith: "If you solve for identity in payments, everything else is just accounting".And here is the article that I recently wrote on the subject of KYC/KYB requirements: https://aftfinance.substack.com/p/kyc-kyb-aml-and-bsa?r=8gvix

Cheryl Gurz Product Manager with RTP at The Clearing House in this episode is explaining the key functionality of RTP and the backend.

Here are the key takeaways from the interview:

• TCH basically works to recoup the losses - they are not for profit.
• Zelle does instant clearing but not settlement, while RTP is the first network in the US where clearing and settlement are done together on the good funds model.
• Majority of payments are executed in 3.5 seconds.
• 5 million of RFPs were processed last year (2024).
• "pending issue" is there because of the batch posting by banks. They post the transaction at the end of the day, the available balance will change.
• Pricing - TCH is charging $0.045 per credit but your bank can charge as much as they want to.
• 43% of the RTP payments are made after the standard banking hours.
• The banks that are on the RTP network have to make the funds in the credit transaction within 5 seconds 24/7. 
• "You don't need to know how the payment is made"

Meet us at AFP, booth #618!!!

Cheryl's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheryl-gurz-0871287/

As always, check out my Substack and specifically my post about Requests for Payments.

Find RFP documentation here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vUGD14WbFvVB5iy7Zy9QcnIYKLr-riIM/view?usp=sharing

Sonia Nigam - Founder and CEO at Change in this episode talks about the money movement behind the scenes of charities. Especially the ones organized and led by corporations.

If you have ever wondered what happens when the grocery store asks you to round up your purchase for charity - you'll find answers in this interview!

P.S. Apologies for the sound on my side, my computer connected to the wrong microphone.

Find our articles covering payment rails in-depth on our Substack: https://aftfinance.substack.com/

Rehman Baig, CPO at FlexFactor in this episode talks about combating transaction declines and disputes. How the process of underwriting looks like, how are funds reclaimed, what the end-user sees and how it all operates under the hood.

Follow us on Substack here for more in-depth coverage of interesting topics like OCT, Pre-Debiting, ACH disputes and much more: https://aftfinance.substack.com/

Rehman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rehmanb/

In this episode we cover exactly what the title suggests: pay-ins. Specifically focusing on the use-cases like repayment of outstanding debts such as tolls due, phone bills overdue etc.

Covering a wide array of pay-in options and explaining how they operate, how the funds get attributed to each user and how the backend of the operations looks like.

Michael Kaplan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelkaplan2/

PayNearMe: https://home.paynearme.com/

AFT Substack: https://aftfinance.substack.com/

And of course, our official website: https://www.aft.finance/