The retrenchment of consumers from credit and the increased pace of development in electronic payments are catalysts to one of the biggest changes in consumer payment behaviors in recent US history. In this new environment, consumers are evaluating and adopting alternative payment methods at a faster rate than ever before. Are these new methods of payment truly disintermediating financial institutions? How are these new methods of payment impacting the relationship between consumers and financial institutions? Are these new payment methods more prone to fraud? What about the financial institution’s brand equity?

In this session, you will hear from both an expert industry analyst and a leading alternative payment provider on how this market is evolving, the dynamics that are driving it, the characteristics of successful alternative payment business models, the risk and reward of such solutions, and how one industry-leading provider is addressing the opportunity to cooperate and cohabitate with traditional financial institutions as a way to address these issues and concerns.

Consumer demand for online person-to-person (P2P) payments is skyrocketing, and banks need to have a forward-thinking strategy for how they will adapt their online offerings to meet their customers’ needs and leverage the opportunity to generate new revenue and increase customer retention and loyalty. With more than 70 percent of consumers regularly transacting online, and more consumers using cell phones for financial transactions every day, this is the time for banks to consider an email and mobile payments solution that enables consumers to make P2P payments within the convenience and added security of their own financial institution.

Session highlights include:

• Discussion of market trends and industry data for P2P payments
• Results of CashEdge's fourth annual survey of online banking consumers
• Insight into how an email and mobile payments service can help drive adoption of, and leverage investment already made into, a bank's core online and mobile banking channels

With the challenges the market is facing—from government regulations and declining credit quality to customer dissatisfaction—the once thriving, trillion-dollar credit card industry is now looking for new ways to increase revenue.

Credit card issuers need to look toward a new frontier, toward alternatives to traditional cards. Pioneering payment options exist today that can help institutions meet the evolving needs of payment consumers. Moreover, these payment products offer new revenue options, lending themselves to transactional pricing as opposed to the traditional fee structure. Our panel of experts will discuss the benefits, challenges, and implementations of these emerging payment products.

Key Takeaways:

• How the economics, security threats, and convenience expectations of today are shaping the products that consumers and FIs want
• What products are competing to be the next credit card
• The benefits of moving beyond the failing credit card model and into innovative relationships with merchants, issuers, and consumers

The evolution of the phone as a payments tool continues to gain momentum around the world with the use of NFC technology in the phone as well as through the use of a mobile payment tag where NFC technology is not available. ABI Research revised its numbers upward for 2009 noting that North American mobile commerce sales are expected to top $750 million for the year. How have the mobile payments market evolved? How are payments players making the commerce experience both with and through the mobile phone as seamless and accessible as possible to customers? The session will focus on the evolution of the mobile phone as an access point for online commerce and as a payment tool overall.

As the use of prepaid cards continues to grow and more card programs enter the marketplace, retention will be increasingly important. To retain cardholders, keep accounts active and maintain a profitable program, issuers need to provide meaningful and recurring ways that cardholders can use their funds such as expedited bill payment. This presentation will provide insight into the added value that a prepaid card program can offer cardholders with an expedited bill payment service. They will discuss how to establish a bill payment network, retail and online, and discuss the value of expedited bill payment to the unbanked populations as well as the added speed and convenience of this on-line service to cardholders.

Hispanics are not only the fastest growing population segment in numbers but they also represent the fastest growing in terms of purchasing power. Hispanic buying power is estimated at more than $900 billion – projected to double in the next 10 years. Today, there are more than 46.9 million Hispanics in U.S. (15 percent of total U.S. population) and by 2010, there will be an estimated 50 million Hispanics in the U.S. – an increase of 123 percent from 1990. However, many U.S. Hispanics tend to rely heavily on cash. This session will reveal the opportunity for financial institutions in prepaid financial products, as well as the opportunity to educate this audience about prepaid as an alternative for everyday spending that gives them control over their finances. You’ll also hear about the ability of prepaid to connect consumers without traditional banking relationships to the financial mainstream.

Governments are increasingly turning to prepaid cards for disbursing the billions of dollars in critical benefits many underserved consumers rely on, like child support, unemployment, worker’s compensation, and other benefits as those entities look to facilitate more efficient, cost-effective and transparent ways to serve their constituents. Attendees will learn about best practices of successful government implementations as well as new capabilities that streamline government processes and give issuers increased ability to serve their clients, such as new functionality that combines multiple disbursement programs onto a single card.