Transcription:
Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio for the authoritative record.
Chana Schoenberger (00:01):
Hello, I'm Chana Schoenberger, editor-in-chief of American Banker, and I'm here at Digital Banking 2026. I have with me here Chris Ward, who is the head of enterprise payments at
Chris Ward (00:12):
Thank you. Great to be here.
Chana Schoenberger (00:14):
So you are one of our
Chris Ward (00:17):
.
(00:19):
That's great. Thank
Chana Schoenberger (00:20):
You. Why?
Chris Ward (00:21):
I think really when you think about it, it's really, and we were actually talking about this earlier today when we were on stage, is we've got to really think about an approach where consumers, businesses, companies don't have to think about the rail, don't have to think about the channel. Who wakes up and says, "I want to make an ACH today, or I want to do a card transaction?"
Chana Schoenberger (00:44):
Seems like a FedNow day.
Chris Ward (00:45):
Exactly. They just want to actually make a payment or receive a payment and we've got to really design things around what I call the four S of payments, which is A, they want speed, meaning it has to happen when they want it and they want the information associated with the transaction. They want simplicity. They don't want to have to think about the rail or the venue, et cetera. They want safety. So they want to be able to transact in a safe, sound and secure manner. And the last S is they want it to be smart. And that could be in the digital context, that could be getting it to the right place at the right time. Smart could mean any form factor.
Chana Schoenberger (01:30):
Okay. So how do you design it so it picks the right rail without involving the consumer in the decision?
Chris Ward (01:37):
I think it's a little bit like mailing a package. You give it a destination and give you the options of the speed in which you want it to arrive at the destination. So if you think about a monthly payment, does it have to go fast? No, but you'd want to know that it got there. But if you are closing on a transaction today, you need to be fast, you want it to go that way. So I think starting with the destination and focusing on how to get there is the right answer versus typically we as banks, we as institutions have been designing pick a reel first and then we'll let you know what the options are, if that makes sense.
Chana Schoenberger (02:17):
First drive to UPS or drive to FedEx and then buy what FedEx is selling.
Chris Ward (02:22):
Right, exactly.
Chana Schoenberger (02:23):
So how do you deal with security for the enterprise when there are so many people who could potentially authorize a payment, but the business just wants it to get there?
Chris Ward (02:36):
Yeah. Look, everybody is back to the right friction at the right time. You have to have the right controls. I think that as we hear a lot about agentic, about agents, about a lot of things, you still have to control everything. The surgeon doesn't put the robot in you and then walk out of the room and have a cup of coffee and let the procedure take place. It's no different with payments. There has to be controls. There has to be the right controls at the right level based upon the right risk. And I think that's where the smart and safety all come into play based upon balancing those two aspects together and having the right features in the way clients actually execute payments that enable you to control it in the way that you want as a company.
Chana Schoenberger (03:30):
How do you upgrade companies that are still using older payment systems like checks, for instance?
Chris Ward (03:38):
I don't know. When I started in banking, we were going to be a checkless society and that was many decades ago, but anyways, some people still love their paper.
Chana Schoenberger (03:45):
Well, when I started in journalism, newspapers were dying and they haven't died yet.
Chris Ward (03:49):
Right, exactly. Exactly. So we both have something in common there. But honestly, it has more to do with generally as the companies are upgrading their technologies that they're using, that usually gives them the opportunity to rethink the way in which they're executing payments and it allows them to more easily embed themselves into their banks and embedded finance and embedded transaction execution is still nascent in the grand scheme of things, but as everybody's upgrading their ERP, it's giving them a chance all to rethink how they do that. The second thing I would say that's also helping with that is as the economy continues to evolve to a 24 by seven, you can't operate in a check-based world. Mail doesn't go on Sunday, for example. So all of that's going to drive everybody to more digital solutions, more real time, more 24 by seven solutions.
Chana Schoenberger (04:49):
Where do stablecoins fit into all of this?
Chris Ward (04:52):
I think stablecoins, which some consider private money in some regards, is very early on. And if you think about in order to transact, I know I said we're trying to be rail agnostic, but each rail has a set of rules. Can you point to me where the rules are for stablecoins and what happens if a transaction doesn't happen the way it happens? So I think there's a maturity that has to occur relative to the regulatory framework, the rules in which it's going to operate. And then I think that will then determine how Stablecoin will play out in the future because any business who wants to do transactions actually has to understand the rules and the regulations that are going to govern how the transaction executes and settles.
Chana Schoenberger (05:48):
Do you find that your business customers are asking for stablecoin?
Chris Ward (05:53):
I would say that we're so early innings it's not really at a crescendo as of yet, but it's not really that prevalent. I think there's very narrow use cases where folks are thinking about things, but it's not mainstream as of yet.
Chana Schoenberger (06:12):
Okay. So as you look towards the next year, what is the big project that you're going to hope to bring to fruition?
Chris Ward (06:19):
I think it'll continue to be what I'll call rail simplification and really getting to a place where clients are less and less focused on rails and being rail agnostic and being able to execute 24 hours a day, seven days a week, no matter what type of business consumer that needs to execute a payment.
Chana Schoenberger (06:41):
Great. Well, thank you very much, Chris.
Chris Ward (06:43):
Thank you. Appreciate it.