Key Takeaways from MoneyLIVE North America 2024

Everyone wants it, but there are many choices

There was more than ample opportunity to discuss instant payments at MoneyLIVE—both in formal sessions and in-person conversations. Most interesting was how many well-formed options there already are, including major players FedNow and Real Time Payments (RTP) and others, including:

• Push-to-Card: Services like Visa Direct and Mastercard Send allow for real-time payments to be pushed directly to debit cards, offering another form of instant payment.
• Digital Wallets: While not always instant, services like PayPal, Venmo and Cash App offer quick transfers between users and can be linked to bank accounts for faster withdrawals.
• Blockchain-based Solutions: Some banks are developing private blockchain solutions for various payment types, including cross-border payments and liquidity management.
• Zelle: A popular peer-to-peer payment service offered by many major U.S. banks. It allows for near-instant transfers between bank accounts.
• Same Day ACH: This is an enhancement to the traditional Automated Clearing House (ACH) system that allows for faster processing of electronic funds transfers, typically within the same business day.

There’s clearly high interest across the payments space. GFT’s strong global track record in delivering payments-based projects around the world will help accelerate adoption with U.S. clients. This has become especially crucial as banks, from global players to credit unions, continue to focus on customer experience while managing costs and modernizing their portfolios.

Slow-going in the U.S., but there are some bright spots

Given recent official pronouncements from the U.S. Federal Reserve, there are no concrete plans for a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) for the U.S. In addition, the relatively new ISO 20022 regulations have yet to be widely implemented widespread in implementation across the country. Simply put, we believe that it will be at least 5-7 years before the U.S. will be able to meaningfully take advantage of the cross-border payment capabilities that other countries enjoy today at scale.

But while Americans wait for it, there are still some surprisingly innovative uses of existing infrastructure to provide cross-border payments, driven mostly by large banks and other global players. We heard about these and more at MoneyLIVE 2024’s cross-border payments roundtable session, featuring GFT’s Carlos Kazuo Missao. GFT’s project with Mastercard, XBS (Cross-border Services), for example, was discussed. XBS uses Mastercard’s global network to provide seamless cross-border payments at a lower cost than alternatives like SWIFT. It is being developed for adoption by banks.

GFT’s industry-leading Universal Digital Payments Network (UDPN), an interoperable global payments network for regulated digital currencies, including stablecoins and CBDCs, also came up as an example of what’s already available. This network handles regulated digital currencies across all technical platforms, and has a new Sandbox capability U.S. enterprises can use to experiment with cross-border payments.

Our numerous cross-border payment projects in Central and South America are continuing to evolve and grow to better serve our customers, and we’re actively monitoring the U.S. market as it evolves.

Five areas of interest

AI and Data was infused throughout the conference, popping up in nearly every discussion and session. GFT’s observations confirmed MoneyLIVE’s audience survey, which highlighted five critical areas of interest:

• Process Automation
• AML and fraud detection
• Cybersecurity and resilience
• Credit decisioning
• Customer Experience and Engagement

Discussions with executives of leading banks and Fintech companies underscored a critical theme: customers want clarity in both approach and service. While most customers already have AI & Data transformation programs underway, few can point to quantifiable business outcomes. At GFT, our AI approach has always been pragmatic and focused on proving value based on established guardrails and measures from the ground up.

All in all, MoneyLIVE was a valuable and insightful event for GFT, and we look forward to more conversation, community and collaboration as we drive the future of Payments, Fintech and AI. And as one speaker wisely observed, “bring me a painkiller, not a vitamin!”

If you’d like to learn more about GFT and discuss your enterprise’s next-gen needs (and painkillers), please contact us below.

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