Jennifer Barker, global head of payments and trade and depositary receipts at BNY, describes herself as a translator. Trained as an engineer, she quickly discovered that what interested her most wasn't necessarily the technology itself, but helping businesses understand how new things could solve old problems.
That mindset shaped a career spent modernizing payments, and, over the past year, guiding BNY's approach to AI, digital assets, and new payments technologies.
"I love to grow things. I love to build things. I love to help clients solve their problems," Barker said. For her, payments offer the ideal challenge, combining technology, regulation and commercial opportunity.
Barker oversees a business that processes about $2.5 trillion in payments each day, as of March 2026. In 2025, the division generated $2.5 billion in revenue, up from $2.1 billion a year earlier, while BNY said it posted the strongest year-over-year growth in SWIFT payment volumes among its peer group.
"Sometimes payments are underestimated in terms of the importance of how they help run the economy and help keep companies successful," she said.
Amid that growth, much of Barker's attention over the past year has centered on integrating AI; embedding it into everyday payments operations and using "digital employees" – that have employee IDs, managers and undergo performance reviews – to resolve payment exceptions and automate routine processes.
"Our clients look to us to say, how do I save more money? How do I get faster? How do I optimize my liquidity, income and reduce my expenses? And so AI can really help us answer those questions," she said.
While optimization has been a priority, Barker is quick to reject the idea that AI replaces people or disrupts the hiring pipeline. "We have to grow talent," she said, adding that early career employees are "digitally native" and bring "unique" perspectives.
Instead, she sees AI as creating capacity, allowing employees to spend less time repairing payments or amending data.
In digital assets, Barker shepherded the bank's partnership with Sygnum Bank, a partnership that extends USD settlement capabilities into the digital asset ecosystem. She also pushed tokenized deposits forward, with new technology that allows certain financial assets or liabilities to be represented on blockchain networks. Rather than viewing digital assets and conventional finance as competing systems, she believes the industry's future lies in making the two work together seamlessly.
The past year also brought a geographic expansion to Barker's role. After relocating to London, she assumed responsibility for BNY's Europe business, putting her at the center of a market she views as a leader in instant payments and open banking, trends she expects will increasingly shape the U.S. market as well.
