BAI Online

Deborah L. Bianucci President and CEO, BAI

Payments Issues Take Priority at BAI

The payments business is changing in more ways with more bottom-line impact than we have ever seen. At BAI, we have watched these changes for decades. Our commitment to providing high-value information dates back to the early 1970s when the focus was on building check processing infrastructure. Fast forward through the last 30 years, changes in what technology can do, consumer habits and government regulations, and today checks are just one form of payment. “Payments” is an umbrella term that encompasses checks and non-check transactions, a growing category that includes cash, ACH, debit cards, credit cards, contactless payments, prepaid cards, ATMs and online bill pay.

While check processing and the retail banking and operational considerations supporting the check as a payment product have been a core information product of BAI, we at BAI are committed to providing relevant, useful information on topics relating to all forms of retail payments. It is one of our top priorities because we believe it is at the top of the list of our customers’ information needs.

In meetings with financial services executives, we’ve asked point-blank: What do you need to make better decisions about your future (and future profitability) in payments? We asked the same question in market research we conducted this summer with bank executives and solutions providers.

What we learned was that the banking industry needs comprehensive, balanced, open discussions that can help blaze a path to assure continued profitability in payments. (The Clearing House’s Rick Leander elaborates on what’s needed in our January/February Banking Strategies interview) While information abounds from a variety of industry groups, technology companies and consultancies, it is apparent that there still are many gaps in the knowledge that decision-makers in financial services companies have about the changing dynamics of this business.

And, we learned that many expect BAI to be doing more to help. Our customers acknowledged BAI’s role in the industry as neutral and unbiased. Our reason for being is solely to provide information that enhances our customers’ organizational and individual performance and profitability. But, we are being told that BAI could be doing more to deliver the comprehensive, balanced information and insights that only BAI—not a lobbying organization and not affiliated with any payment product or platform—would.

Financial services companies operate in unique and highly regulated environments. They handle more transactions than any other payments business. The average bank is likely to be involved in a range of payments products and channels that begins with their checking account business. Their challenge in pacing their investment and management of the known while committing to the new is daunting. Our customers are looking for help they can rely on to fully understand their options.

In 2006, more help is what you will see BAI providing across our four businesses.

• Our payments strategies portal is a real-time resource of ongoing payments issues—many of which have been explored by our bimonthly publication Banking Strategies or semi-monthly newsletter BAI Banking Strategies Retail Delivery Insights. You’ll find links to all of our recent editorial coverage as well as links to the multiple organizations involved in payments.

Do you have a thought leadership submission or suggestion? We welcome them! Send to paymentsstrategies@bai.org. Included on the portal page are BAI Resource Directory links to companies with payments-related solutions.

• BAI events—notably BAI TransPay^SM Conference & Expo and BAI Retail Delivery Conference & Expo—for years have been where bankers have continued their education on payments-related topics. This spring’s BAI TransPay will present the latest from leading authorities in the payments (check and non-check) marketplace and payments regulation. BAI TransPay’s exhibit hall, too, features exhibitors and solutions tailored to implementation within a financial institution. Expect to hear much more about BAI TransPay, the only payments conference focused on financial institution profitability in payments.
• Our commitment to payments will cut across every business we're in. Building on our extensive research and benchmarking work in retail banking, BAI has launched a major payments study, “Small Business Payment Strategies.” Conducted in conjunction with Oracle and Unisys, we are studying small business owners’ needs through extensive primary research with small business customers and interviews with leading bank executives and industry experts. The results will be released and discussed this May at BAI TransPay.
• Other education and training is available through BAI’s graduate school programs where the payments business is an important part of the curriculum. We also have an extensive line of training courses, primarily for front-line and back-office staff who need information to better serve their customers.
• Finally, BAI will be launching a series of Webinar and regional seminars on payments topics to be covered in 2006.

Throughout 2006, expect to hear from us as we continue to provide forums for reporting information and insights—and stimulating debate, too—as you in the industry wrestle with the many issues that impact your revenue from payments.

What more can we do? We want to hear from you. Contact Clint Swift, our director of Operations and Payments, at cswift@bai.org.

Looking for an integrated training solution?

Give your employees access to premier training content via the Internet, CD-ROM, VHS video or print. Through its recent acquisition of Bankers Training Consulting Company, BAI now offers more than 400 programs covering a wide variety of topics including compliance, teller/frontline, lending, security & fraud, management, computer skills and more. Visit www.bai.org/training/info.

BAI’s 2006 Budget Planner is designed to help you easily build and plan your conference and seminar attendance (see www.bai.org/planner/bs).

Researching solution providers?

You’ll find close to 600 companies in 55 categories in the BAI Resource Directory. Go to www.bai.org/resource and find solutions for ATMs, Check Imaging, Core Systems, Marketing, Regulatory Reporting, Smart Cards, Training, Transaction Processing, Wholesale, Corporate & Government Banking and more.