Participants Give A Different Version Of ABA Conference

To the Editor:

After reading the article about the ABA's new Future Payments Conference ("ABA's Revamped Conference a Tough Sell," Sept. 22, page 14), I wondered if your reporters were at another meeting.

We were pleased with the turnout and program content. Sure, we had a couple of speakers cancel, but it was due to a combination of factors: a death in the immediate family and Hurricane Floyd.

Based on the feedback we've received from bankers, we are satisfied with the results of this first effort by ABA to hold a conference that merged traditional payments projects and technologies with the emerging Internet-based payment systems and applications. Six hundred attendees is a good start for a new conference covering underexplored territory.

We went to Chicago to help bankers understand all sides of the complex issues involved in the emerging payments marketplace, find the payments business model that suits them best, and seize new competitive opportunities for banks of every size. We believe our conference opened doors to new, even controversial, ideas and concepts, and we plan to keep on opening those doors for bankers in the future.

J. Douglas Adamson

Executive director, professional development group,

American Bankers Association

Washington

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