Adam Brault

FedNow’s momentum is no accident. Chief Executive Nick Stanescu credits direct feedback from banks and fintech partners for shaping faster innovation—raising limits, adding APIs, and streamlining onboarding. Collaboration is fueling the future of instant payments. https://lnkd.in/eJvyhPhc

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ClearBank launches Plaid-powered real-time payments ClearBank, the enabler of real-time clearing and embedded banking, has announced a strategic partnership with Plaid, a data network that provides the analytics layer for financial services, to enhance real-time open banking payments across the UK. Read the story here: https://lnkd.in/gGSMK_Sm #FinTech #PayTech #Payments Zak Lambert Mark Fairless

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Fiserv Brings BNPL Capabilities to Debit Cards with Affirm Fiserv and Affirm are bringing BNPL to debit cards, enabling banks and credit unions to offer pay-over-time capabilities through existing debit programs without building new lending infrastructure. Offering BNPL with bank-issued debit cards shifts installment lending from the merchant checkout to bank-owned channels, allowing financial institutions to retain customer relationships, data, and engagement within their own apps and card programs. The model positions banks as the primary gateway for flexible payments, placing BNPL distribution within core payments infrastructure. Core banking platform and payments player Fiserv is bringing buy now, pay later (BNPL) capabilities to its debit cards. The Wisconsin-based company is collaborating with Affirm to bring pay-over-time capabilities to its debit card programs, empowering Fiserv clients, including community banks and credit unions, to offer their end customers flexible payment options without having to build new lending products. According to Fiserv, the move is designed to help smaller financial institutions compete more effectively while keeping customer relationships anchored to their own debit products. “Community and regional banks and credit unions want to meet evolving consumer expectations around greater flexibility in how they pay for purchases all the while building a strong relationship with their primary financial institution,” said Fiserv Head of Card Services Erik Wichita. “This partnership gives our clients a practical, scalable way to offer such payment flexibility through their existing debit products—helping them compete effectively, deepen customer and member relationships, and drive top-of-wallet engagement with their products.” Today’s announcement comes four years after Affirm and Fiserv first teamed up, integrating Affirm’s Adaptive Checkout to Fiserv’s Carat global commerce hub. The move allowed merchants using Carat to offer BNPL to their shoppers. Adding pay-over-time capabilities to debit cards instead of just offering the option at the point-of-sale moves the payment from a merchant-led experience to a bank-centric one. Instead of being offered only at checkout with participating retailers, debit-based BNPL allows shoppers to access installment payments across a wider range of purchases and merchants, using their preferred payment card. For banks and credit unions, this model retains the customer relationship, data, and engagement within their own debit programs and mobile apps. Affirm, for its part, sees the partnership as a way to bring pay-over-time options directly into the primary banking relationship, rather than positioning BNPL as a standalone checkout experience. “Millions of consumers depend on their local financial institutions, including for their top-of-wallet debit cards,” said Affirm CRO Wayne Pommen. “By partnering with Fiserv, we’re helping these institutions offer transparent...

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ACH vs. Real-Time Payments vs. OCT/AFT: What’s the Difference? The #Payments ecosystem offers various methods for moving money. Let’s compare three critical systems and their unique advantages: 1️⃣ ACH Transfers: Speed: Typically processed in batches, taking 1-3 business days (or same-day for Same Day ACH). Cost: Low fees make it great for payroll, bill payments, and recurring transactions. Use Case: Ideal for everyday transfers like direct deposits and business-to-business payments. 2️⃣ Real-Time Payments (RTP): Speed: Instantaneous—funds are moved and settled in seconds, 24/7. Cost: Generally higher than ACH but lower than wire transfers. Use Case: Perfect for urgent, high-priority payments like real estate transactions or account-to-account transfers. 3️⃣ OCT (Original Credit Transactions) and AFT (Account Funding Transactions): Speed: Near-instant transfers initiated via payment networks like Visa Direct or Mastercard Send. Cost: Typically higher due to network fees but offer incredible speed and reach. Use Case: Great for payouts like refunds, gig economy payments, and instant cash disbursements. Understanding when to use ACH, RTP, or OCT/AFT can make all the difference in optimizing costs and efficiency in your payment strategy. 🎓 Want to master the nuances of these payment methods? 👉 Get FREE access to our Intro to Payments course at the Payments Academy and learn how these systems power the modern payments industry. Sign up now: https://lnkd.in/eMP95gJa #ACH #RealTimePayments #OCT #AFT #FinTech #DigitalPayments #PaymentsAcademy #ProfessionalDevelopment

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All human wisdom on the ACH rail has been contained in two words: wait and hope. GrailPay offers a third: know. $93 trillion moves across the ACH network every year. Yet businesses still have limited visibility into whether a payment will actually clear before the money moves. GrailPay is building a critical trust layer for the future of B2B payments. Read why we invested: https://lnkd.in/gnnjetFe

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Embedded finance is gaining ground, but speed alone shouldn’t come at the cost of choice or transparency. The real conversation is about control. When funding is locked inside a single platform, founders may lose visibility into what they’re signing up for or miss better-fit options. Chris Lucas flagged this piece and it’s worth a look. #SmallBusinessFunding #CapitalAccess #FintechTrends #LendingInsights #GrowthCapital #FounderSupport #AlternativeFinance #B2BFunding #BusinessLending

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Regulatory change is accelerating in payments. New state-level guidance is reshaping compliance for fintechs and digital asset platforms. What does this mean for your operations? Our team tracks every update across 45 state licenses. We translate complex rules into actionable steps so you can move money confidently. Want a deeper breakdown? Connect with us for tailored insight.

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Mercury has applied for a U.S. national bank charter, appointing former SoFi Bank CFO Jon Auxier to lead its proposed bank. The move signals growing fintech confidence in full-stack banking—and a broader shift toward regulatory maturity across the sector. #Fintech #DigitalBanking #BankCharter #FutureOfBanking #StartupBanking #RegTech #FinancialServices #OCC #FDIC https://lnkd.in/dru2J5mb

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Your Core Banking Conversion Could Be Your Competitive Edge (Or Your Biggest Mistake) FIS just got named a Leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Retail Core Banking Systems. That's great news for FIS. But here's what matters for community banks and credit unions: A Gartner Leader badge doesn't guarantee a successful conversion for YOUR institution. The difference between a transformation that positions you to compete with fintechs and a conversion that cripples operations for 18 months? The IT consultancy you choose. Core banking conversions are high-stakes, complex projects. Your vendor has a product to sell. Your internal team has day jobs to do. And the margin for error is razor thin. The right consultancy brings three things your vendor and internal team can't: Independent expertise. No sales agenda. No institutional blindness. Just clear-eyed assessment of what your institution actually needs versus what the vendor wants to sell you. Battle-tested process. We've seen every conversion scenario: data migration disasters averted, parallel processing timelines optimized, staff training that actually sticks. Your team gets to do this once. We do this constantly. Strategic positioning. A successful conversion isn't about moving from System A to System B. It's about emerging with a modern, modular infrastructure that lets you launch new products in weeks instead of quarters. Community banks and credit unions that treat core conversions as IT projects end up with working systems and exhausted teams. Those that treat them as strategic transformations end up with competitive advantages. Your members don't care which core you run. They care whether you can match the experience they get from Chime, SoFi, and their regional fintech darling. The question isn't whether to convert. It's whether to do it right. What's your conversion story? Drop a comment.

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Regions Bank Taps Whitney Stewart Russell to Drive Innovation Across Consumer Products and Origination Partnerships https://lnkd.in/dNcpQh5n Regions Bank #financialtechnology #Fintech #financial #finance #InsurTech #FintechNews #AIinFinance

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Capital One announced it’s acquiring small business banking fintech Brex for $5.15 billion. The reactions were predictable: bankers applauded the scale and the fintech community cheered the big payout. But is it a good deal? For the founders and investors: oh yeah. But what about Cap One and Brex? The ultimate success of the deal hinges on a bunch of "ifs" relating to technology, cultural, and customer factors. But here's the most important aspect of this deal: 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄—𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗱. Brex wrapped credit, cash management, and spend controls into a clean, modern software experience. Capital One has issued business cards forever, but “forever” is the problem. This deal is about buying a software-first operating model that Capital One couldn’t build on its own. A broader analysis of the pros and cons of the deal--from the perspectives of both companies--is in my latest Fintech Snark Tank article on Forbes. Appreciate you giving it a read. https://lnkd.in/eiqX6Ame Tony DeSanctis Al Dominick

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