If one were to ask Bridgit Chayt
2025 was a year marked by having to plan for the unplanned, said Chayt, who heads Fifth Third's $1 billion-revenue commercial payments business.
"There are those times when the year changes for leaders, and it's more of an exercise of putting on the brakes or shifting or getting in a different car," Chayt told American Banker. "The acquisition of
But Chayt and team were able to "keep all the cars on the road, in their lanes and moving forward," executing not only on completing due diligence for two acquisitions, but also the integrations.
"We probably did [the Comerica acquisition] due diligence in the shortest amount of time for as large of an organization [as it was], but yet when we went back and we looked at all the artifacts of that, it was a much deeper, more robust due diligence than we had seen in other acquisitions that we'd made in prior years," Chayt said. "It wasn't faster for fast's sake; it was that we had all become more fine-tuned at what we needed to do and how to get it done."
Chayt is no stranger to acquisitions, having overseen the bank's 2023 purchase of Rize Money, which would become Fifth Third's embedded payments business, Newline. Newline was named a
That acquisition transformed Fifth Third's commercial payments business and continues to pay dividends. Last year, Newline's fee revenue increased 53% year over year, cementing it as the
Overall, Fifth Third processed more than $18 trillion in payments volume last year, with commercial payments fee revenue growing 4.3% year over year. Commercial payments have also become the primary driver of commercial client relationship growth, accounting for 39% of new client acquisitions in the year.
But 2025 wasn't without its challenges, she said.
"The biggest challenge was realizing that in addition to having people believe in the vision and follow where you wanted to go, there was a need to make people feel good about what was going on outside of the four walls of the bank," Chayt said. "I noticed that more in 2025. There were people who were looking to you for confidence measures outside of, 'Will we make plan?' or, 'Will we make this product rollout?'"
Looking ahead, Chayt is preparing her team to help clients tackle what she calls the "paradox of choice" that comes from having too many payment options, similar to a restaurant with too large of a menu.
"There's just too many choices in front of you. How does a middle market company, a large corporate or a small business actually decide what's best for them in their environment?" Chayt said. "A big change in payments will be one that will either fail or succeed on the talent within the payments industry to sit down in front of a client and actually narrow those choices.
"It's not about a client having one of everything. It's about having the right ones that propel their business," Chayt said.
