News & Press

Meet Two Featured Speakers at the 2026 MNAFP Annual Conference

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 13:09:00 GMT

Meet Two Featured Speakers at the 2026 MNAFP Annual Conference

Get a preview of two featured conference speakers and hear directly from them in the videos below.

Opening Session

Karen Gilhooly

Karen Gilhooly will kick off the conference with an engaging, interactive session designed to energize attendees and provide practical tools treasury professionals can apply immediately.

With more than 25 years of global leadership experience at HSBC and Citigroup, Karen specializes in helping leaders navigate change, strengthen execution, and improve performance in complex environments.

Her session, AI in Treasury: Promise Meets Reality: Driving Adoption Without Burning Out Your Team, will explore how treasury teams can align technology initiatives with human capacity to drive meaningful results.

Watch Karen’s video in a new window

Keynote Speaker

Jason Schenker

Jason Schenker prepares leaders for the future. He is the President of Prestige Economics, Chairman of The Futurist Institute, and faculty at the Joint Special Operations University.

Bloomberg News has ranked Jason the number one forecaster in the world in 36 different categories. Jason is the author of 38 books, including 17 bestsellers. More than 1.5 million learners have taken his LinkedIn Learning courses.

You may have seen him as a frequent guest on CNBC and Bloomberg TV.

Watch Jason’s conference video in a new window

Jason Schenker in the News

Get another preview of Jason’s perspective in these recent TV interviews covering oil prices, inflation, the economy, and markets.

Bloomberg TV Interview – April 7/8

Discussion on Iran, oil prices, inflation, and markets.

Watch the Bloomberg TV interview in a new window

BNN Bloomberg TV Interview – April 17

Discussion on Iran, oil prices, the economy, and markets.

Watch the BNN Bloomberg TV interview in a new window

When Payment Delays Become Customer-Service Headaches

Tue, 2 Jun 2026 16:30:00 GMT

The modern payments economy can approve a transaction in seconds yet still leave recipients wondering where their money is days later.

That disconnect is becoming one of the clearest operational pain points in payouts, according to the latest PYMNTS Intelligence and Visa Direct report, “The Power of Now: Moving Money at the Speed of Life,” which found that payment inquiries tied to delayed, missing or unclear payouts have become one of the most persistent forms of friction across industries.

The report surveyed 360 executives across healthcare, insurance and investment platforms, alongside more than 2,300 consumers receiving government disbursements. The findings pointed to an ecosystem where payments are often approved quickly but still move through fragmented rails that slow delivery, reduce visibility and trigger customer complaints.

Huntington Bank Joins Push to Make Big Payments More Resilient

Tue, 2 Jun 2026 16:28:00 GMT

For years, payment infrastructure was treated as plumbing: necessary and expensive. But increasingly, financial institutions are approaching it differently, weighing payment architecture as part of liquidity planning, operational continuity and client acquisition.

That context provides the backdrop for Huntington Bank joining CHIPS, The Clearing House’s high-value payments network.

Richard Dzina, senior vice president of core product management at The Clearing House, told PYMNTS that the move reflects more than an expansion of network participation and may signal how institutions are reassessing wholesale payment capabilities after several years spent absorbing industry-wide modernization work.

Small-Business Banking Has a Segmentation Problem

Tue, 19 May 2026 20:29:00 GMT

The term “small business” has traditionally functioned as a sort of economic shorthand. Banks, payment companies, FinTech firms, and even policymakers spoke about small-and-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) as if they formed a single commercial bloc moving through the economy at roughly the same speed and under roughly the same conditions.

But new findings in the May 2026 edition of the Main Street Health Index by PYMNTS Intelligence reveal that Main Street is no longer moving as one economy. A contractor in Texas, a healthcare practice in Arizona, and a retailer in the Northeast may all technically qualify as small businesses while facing entirely different economic conditions, labor markets and consumer demand environments.

The report found that growth for restaurants and brick-and-mortar retail businesses is slowing or contracting, while healthcare providers, contractors, fitness businesses and professional services firms continue to see their growth expand. The result is a fragmented SMB economy with sharply different operating models, risk profiles and financial infrastructure needs.

AI-Powered Vacation Scams Show Up Right on Time

Tue, 25 Jun 2024 01:27:00 GMT

As travelers pack their bags for long-awaited summer trips, a new breed of scammer is tagging along — powered by artificial intelligence (AI). From fake rental listings to phantom flight deals, AI-assisted travel fraud is surging, leaving vacationers out of pocket and out of luck. Industry watchdogs and cybersecurity experts warn that traditional safeguards are struggling to keep pace, but they’re also exploring how the same technology might be harnessed to outsmart the swindlers.

The rise of AI-powered scams has made vigilance more crucial than ever for would-be vacationers. “Scammers utilize AI to mimic or impersonate popular travel websites by recreating familiar branding, logos, or company verbiage,” Darius Kingsley, managing director and head of consumer banking practices at Chase Bank, told PYMNTS.

Instant Payments Drive Profits for the Small Restaurants That Use Them

Mon, 3 Jun 2024 18:47:00 GMT

Forty percent of the independent mom-and-pop restaurants in the U.S. that generate $10 million or less annually now use instant payment rails as their primary method to send funds.

And these restaurateurs are pleased with the results, according to PYMNTS Intelligence data. Seventy percent say they appreciate how easy it is to use instant payments, and 68% say they value how quickly items are processed.

These are just a few of the findings included in “Small Business Real-Time Payments Barometer: Restaurants Edition,” a report created in collaboration with The Clearing House. The report — which is based on surveys with 614 small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the restaurant sector that generate $10 million or less annually — also found that more than three-fourths of restaurant SMBs using instant payments credit the technology with driving healthier balance sheets.

60 CFOs Can’t Be Wrong … AI Can Help Accounts Payable

Wed, 29 May 2024 18:54:00 GMT

Despite the inefficiency, most CFOs surveyed from firms with at least $1 billion in revenue report using multiple systems to manage their source-to-pay cycles. Just 13% of the companies surveyed use just one accounts payable (AP) system, the most efficient method. Nearly 60% of large firms (those with between $10 billion and $20 billion in annual revenues) use at least five AP systems. Even the largest companies surveyed, those earning more than $20 billion, employ two to four systems for AP on average.

Why does this matter? Needing more systems opens the door to interoperability and incompatibility problems, as more things can go wrong. Currently, they do, as delays are common in AP processes. The data — which comes from enterprise CFOs directly, representing a wide range of industries — reveals that delays affected at least one area in the source-to-pay cycle in the past year for nearly two-thirds of CFOs. They most commonly cited payment execution and authorization delays in the past year.

Involving fewer systems in AP cycles often leads to fewer issues and payment delays. Resetting this paradigm using artificial intelligence (AI) automation tools could reduce these firms’ need for human involvement and fuel faster payments.

Google Pay Expands BNPL and Says Goodbye to the CVV With Biometrics

Tue, 28 May 2024 19:49:00 GMT

A week after Visa threw down the payments gauntlet with a series of announcements that merged the physical and digital worlds, Google took its turn at bat today (May 22), adding three new features to Google Pay.

According to Google Pay Vice President and General Manager Ben Volk, the new features are designed to address the three factors its users told the company are most important when checking out online: security, convenience and access to smart spending tools.

Why Zillennials Will Rule the Digital Economy

Tue, 28 May 2024 19:33:00 GMT

The Census Bureau collects demographic data on the birthrates of those living in the United States and groups them into age-related cohorts based on the year in which they were born. This is done every ten years based on a household survey.

The current generational breakdown looks something like this:

Generational Cohort	Year of Birth	Age Range
Post-War	1945 and earlier	79-96
Baby Boomers	1946 – 1964	60-78
Gen X	1965 – 1980	44-59
Millennials	1981 – 1996	28-43
Gen Z	1997 – 2012	12-27

This “pulse rate” way of classifying the behavior of people born in these 15 year generational bands assumes that birth date defines behaviors within that cohort. That all people who come of age within those age bands behaves similarly. And that the differences between cohorts are more relevant than the differences among the behaviors of the individuals within them.

Pay-by-Bank Solutions Signal New Era of Payments

Tue, 28 May 2024 15:31:00 GMT

Solutions in search of problems rarely scale — something especially true when it comes to payments, where the focus remains on enhancing user experience and efficiency.

With that focus in mind, PYMNTS sat down with Trustly Vice President of Enterprise Growth Ross McFerrin to hear his thoughts on the key drivers of payments modernization for the series “What’s Next in Payments: Payments Modernization.”

“The payments industry is constantly evolving, and when you look at the U.S. in a very card-dominated market, you’re seeing a material shift right now,” McFerrin said.

He cited open banking, changing consumer preferences, and technological advancements including the rise of artificial intelligence as driving this shift.

Why Visa Is Talking About a Working Capital Network

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 16:36:00 GMT

Alan Koenigsberg, senior vice president and global head of large, middle market, treasury and working capital solutions at Visa, took note of the rapid shifts in payments and finance during an interview with Karen Webster.

“If you feel a bit breathless, I think the whole industry does, too, in terms of the rates of change that keep accelerating,” he said.

For Visa, its issuers and their corporate clients, tracking the future of payments and laying the groundwork boils down to just a few focal points. It’s no use trying to boil the proverbial ocean with 100 priorities, he said.

“I call them the ‘big five,’” said Koenigsberg. And with the quintet as a roadmap, companies can seek proactively to change their business models and meet their customers where they want to be met.

Contactless Transactions Mark ‘What’s Next’ in Payments Innovation

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 17:02:00 GMT

The continued rise of contactless payments may be among the most notable payments trends of the year, and it could pave the way for innovations that will shape commerce in the years ahead.

PSCU Chief Growth Officer Brian Scott told PYMNTS that the groundwork was laid a few years ago as financial institutions (FIs) — and especially credit unions — began creating and issuing contactless cards at scale and educating consumers on how to use them. The pandemic was instrumental in steering people to consider ways to pay that didn’t involve handing their cards back and forth amid public health concerns.

Scott told PYMNTS that — as we look toward what’s next in payments technologies — consumers have given a roadmap as to what they want, and what they want is to have payments be simple and intuitive.

“Contactless payments have been incredibly impactful,” he said of the present environment, adding that “the consumers using contactless consistently are using cards more often as their primary payment device.”

There were 11% more ransomware attacks in Q3 than Q2 2023

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 16:40:00 GMT

A recent global ransomware report by Corvus Insurance found that ransomware attack frequency is up 11% from Q2 and increased 95% year-over-year (YoY). According to the report, the single MOVEit vulnerability accounted for 9% of victims listed in Q2 and 13% of victims listed in Q3.

The report found that ransomware typically follows seasonal patterns, with incidents decreasing in early May and remaining low through early August. Driven largely by CL0P, this year’s dip in attacks occurred later in June and, rather than continuing to fall, spiked and remained high through the first half of August. Even without CL0P, ransomware activity would still amount to a 70% year-over-year increase.