Wayne Brown of Alacriti Speaks to Bankers and Graduate Students at University of Connecticut

Wayne Brown, Senior Relationship Management and Partnerships for Alacriti, was the afternoon’s keynote speaker at the Payments and Innovation Conference at the University of Connecticut Stamford Campus on April 10. Banking Exchange hosted about 70 financial executives and 15 University of Connecticut Graduate students at its annual event.

Brown Stated in his presentation, “Offering instant payments has become table stakes for banks and credit unions. What’s different now is the pace of adoption — while interest is high, acceleration remains uneven for a variety of reasons.”

Payments rails are proliferating. It’s not just ACH, card networks, and wire transfers. Real-time options such as The Clearing House’s RTP network and the Federal Reserve’s FedNow Service, VisaDirect, and Zelle have expanded the landscape, and stablecoins are adding another layer of change. As new capabilities emerge across consumer and commercial payments, financial institutions are under pressure to rethink their strategy.

“All instant payment stakeholders within an organization need access to product information and use cases — gained through conversations and industry events — to make sound decisions”,  Brown explained.

He spoke on practical ways to connect legacy infrastructure with newer networks and prepare an organization for future innovation — without disrupting day-to-day operations.

The audience was made up of financial institutions as small as $500 million in assets, to local powerhouse Synchrony, as well as America’s largest banks. “Although RTP will continue to grow as a rail payment method, Brown said. “Other payment methods will gain momentum; therefore, banks must prepare to support this growth.”