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Three Ways Receive-Only Instant Payments Meet Customer Needs
The countdown is on. FedNow goes live in just a few months, and its looming launch creates a sense of urgency around the execution of instant payments.
Where Does Your Community Bank Fall on the Digital Payments Spectrum?
Where Does Your Community Bank Fall on the Digital Payments Spectrum? Payments Executive Brief Issue 1 For a printable PDF of this issue, click here. By Tina Giorgio Use the ICBA Bancard Digital...
Value of the FedNow Service for Community Banks
Value of the FedNow Service for Community Banks The Federal Reserve’s development of the FedNow Service provides the opportunity for all banks—both large and small—to capitalize on the...
ThinkTECH Accelerator: Through the Lens of a Mentor
ThinkTECH Accelerator: Through the Lens of a Mentor ICBA Bancard President and CEO Tina Giorgio reflects on her experiences as a mentor in the ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator program. By Tina Giorgio As...
Strategies to Help Fight Back Against Card Fraud
Strategies to Help Fight Back Against Card Fraud First-party fraud and synthetic identity fraud is an area of growing concern, exacerbated by difficulties of identifying these attacks, but there...
Digital-First: Meeting Customers Where They Are
Digital-First: Meeting Customers Where They Are When it comes to financial services, almost 63 percent of the U.S. population uses digital banking. So, as a community bank, if you are not...
Capitalizing on Change in 2020
One thing is for certain – and that is change. With the advent of new technologies and solutions, education will be the indispensable complement to ensure community banks can take advantage...
7 Tips for Mitigating Synthetic Identity Fraud Risk
7 Tips for Mitigating Synthetic Identity Fraud Risk Catching synthetic identity fraudsters remains difficult, and the fall-out of not detecting it, is substantial. AI company Coalesce estimates...
ICBA Bancard tool helps community banks assess their small business payments readiness
ICBA Bancard tool helps community banks assess their small business payments readiness From having to adapt to retail closings, diminished staff and customer capacities, a new work-from-home...
What You Need to Know about Today’s Credit Card Rewards Programs
What You Need to Know about Today’s Credit Card Rewards Programs Having the right rewards program to match your existing and targeted cardholder customer base is more important than ever. That’s...
Meeting Customers Where They Are for Today’s Digital-First World
Meeting Customers Where They Are for Today’s Digital-First World For community banks, the digital-first nature of today’s world creates an opportunity to forge deeper connections with existing...
Continuing the Conversation: What You Need to Know about Today’s Credit Card Rewards Programs
Continuing the Conversation: What You Need to Know about Today’s Credit Card Rewards Programs Recently, ICBA Bancard, in partnership with TCM Bank, released the white paper, “Cultivating the...
How Community Banks Can Help Customers Evaluate Buy Now, Pay Later Offerings
How Community Banks Can Help Customers Evaluate Buy Now, Pay Later Offerings Buy now, pay later or BNPL, is the latest cautionary payments tale for community banks. Much like digital wallets, its...
Three Ways Community Banks Can Respond to Generational Digital Payments Needs
When it comes to payments, the generational divide has been shrinking. While Gen Z and Millennials still lead the way in digital payments adoption, Baby Boomers and Seniors (over 76) are increasing...
Faster Payments Have Arrived — Now What?
Faster Payments Have Arrived — Now What? Faster payments have arrived. Accelerated by the pandemic, the growth in digital and contactless payments has pushed consumer and business expectations...
How to Digitize the Community Bank Relationship Model
When it comes to community bankers’ technology to-do lists, 35% view investing in digitalization as their top business opportunity. We’ve clearly arrived at a tipping point.
Why Instant Payments Should Be on Your Digital Transformation Road Map
Even if you aren’t hearing the words “faster payments” or “instant payments” directly from your customers, trends and research show the demand is there – and rising. Recent Federal Reserve...
Zelle Fraud: How Community Banks Can Respond to This Cautionary Tale
In 2020, nearly 18 million Americans were defrauded via digital wallets and person-to-person (P2P) services, according to Javelin Strategy & Research. With numbers like that, P2P solutions like...
Six Steps to Your Bank’s Digital Payments Transformation
To support community banks in establishing concrete next steps for their digital transformation efforts, ICBA Bancard has developed the report, “Digital Transformation: The Payments Business Model.”
Building a Concrete Roadmap for Your Digital Transformation
According to a recent survey, 99.8 percent of community bankers feel the adoption of new or emerging technologies to meet customer demand is at least somewhat important, with 64.7 percent labeling...
Myth Busting: 3 Truths About FedNow
Instant payments have arrived. In the five years since the launch of the RTP Network, volumes have steadily increased by more than 10 percent per quarter, and in Q3 2022, the network moved 45...
Faster Payments Have Arrived — Now What About Competition, Fraud, and Strategy? Part 2
Here's part two of a continuing conversation on faster payments, diving into Same Day ACH, competition, fraud, and strategic vision.
5 Ways Community Banks Can Manage the Card Chip Shortage
A semiconductor chip shortage has emerged as a real challenge for banks. Industries from automobile manufacturing to consumer electronics have been reporting issues for months, and now the effects...
How Open Banking Can Help Community Banks Deliver on Digital Expectations
Have you ever been ready to jump into your next meeting only to notice you didn’t have your mobile phone? If so, I’m betting you felt a sense of panic. Because without it, you’d lost your lifeline.
Is Your Community Bank Watching Social Payments? Five Questions to Guide Your Path Forward
The average person spends nearly two and a half hours on social media per day, so it’s no wonder social payments have started to infiltrate the financial services industry.
4 Ways Community Banks Can Attract Gen Z Customers
With the eldest members of Gen Z clocking in at age 24, they represent a market ripe for targeting with banking services. But what they are looking for differs from what Millennials and Gen X...
How the 8-Digit BIN Standard Impacts Your Community Bank
In less than two months, the ISO standards update for 8-digit Bank Identification Numbers, or BINs, takes effect. This new standard means that card processors must be able to accommodate and manage...
A Seat at the Payments Table: How Bancard Is Working for Community Banks
As we usher in 2022, community banks face a new sense of urgency around their payment products.
Three Post-Pandemic Payments Trends and What They Mean for Community Banks
The pandemic has clearly had a lasting impact on customers’ payment behaviors, marked by an unprecedented rise in ecommerce transactions. Amidst this sea of change, community banks are asking,...
How to Avoid the Repercussions of “Friendly Fraud”
Friendly fraud is on the rise, now accounting for up to 75% of all chargebacks. From kids using their parents’ cards to purchase items to flat-out falsification, friendly fraud occurs when a...
Why Small Business See a (Use) Case for Instant Payments
According to the Federal Reserve, nine in 10 businesses (or 29.25 million) expect to be able to send and receive instant payments by 2023. Fortunately, in many cases, community-based financial...
Unpacking the Path to Today’s Instant Payments
When it comes to digital payments, we’ve come a long way. Global mobile payment transactions are valued at over $2 trillion, and more than three-quarters of consumers cite their preference for...
Developing A Payments Strategy Part I
Developing A Payments Strategy Part I Tina Giorgio: In the six months that I’ve been president and CEO of ICBA Bancard, a recurring question I keep hearing from community bankers is, “How do I...
Skate to Where the Puck is Going
Skate to Where the Puck is Going Tina Giorgio: As we move into the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, and I move into a series of discussions on U.S. faster payments efforts, I am reminded of a quote from...
Faster Payments — How Fast is Fast?
Faster Payments — How Fast is Fast? Tina Giorgio: Faster payments is a drum you’ll frequently hear me beat and I have made it something of a personal mission, to ensure that the voices and concerns...
Developing A Payments Strategy Part II: The Nitty Gritty
Developing A Payments Strategy Part II: The Nitty Gritty Tina Giorgio: In my former role as a community banker, I always found it helpful to create visual aids to clarify complex relationships and...
Protecting Consumers After the Equifax Data Breach
Protecting Consumers After the Equifax Data Breach Tina Giorgio: While we wait for the details on the Equifax breach, we have found the community banks are taking the lead in protecting customer...
Are You A Goal Digger? Six Professional Development Ideas for Payments Leaders
Are You A Goal Digger? Six Professional Development Ideas for Payments Leaders Tina Giorgio: When I gaze back on my career, I see peaks and the valleys; the times where I knew where I was headed...
2018: The Year of the Community Bank
2018: The Year of the Community Bank Tina Giorgio: There’s something about the start of a new year that breeds optimism and fresh perspective. Challenges give way to opportunities, and obstacles...
Increasing Cybersecurity: 3 Steps to Mitigate the Hacker’s Heist
Increasing Cybersecurity: 3 Steps to Mitigate the Hacker’s Heist Tina Giorgio: With threats continuing to emerge, I sat down with ICBA’s cyber expert, Jeremy Dalpiaz, assistant vice president of...
The Dawn of Artificial Intelligence
The Dawn of Artificial Intelligence Tina Giorgio: With so many possible applications, it’s hard to predict the path that artificial intelligence will follow. In her latest blog post, ICBA Bancard...
Mythbusting Digital Misconceptions
Mythbusting Digital Misconceptions Tina Giorgio: According to a new Price Waterhouse Cooper digital payments study, 46 percent of bank customers interact with their banks EXCLUSIVELY through...
What Does the Faster Payments Revolution Mean for Community Banks?
What Does the Faster Payments Revolution Mean for Community Banks? Tina Giorgio: My goal is not only to ensure that community banks stay relevant when it comes to real-time payments but ensure that...
Plan for Financial Technology Success
Plan for Financial Technology Success Tina Giorgio: The opportunities presented by financial technology are ripe for the picking but sorting through them all to find the solution that delivers the...
3-2-1 We Have Contactless!
3-2-1 We Have Contactless! Tina Giorgio: Contactless transactions include everything from flashing your watch at the point-of-sale to paying for your groceries, via your refrigerator. As “smart”...
Navigating the New Norm with Digital Optimization
Navigating the New Norm with Digital Optimization In determining what this new business-as-usual will look like for your bank, it is important to identify where your customers are now and how their...
Safeguarding Against Fraud in a COVID-19 Era
Safeguarding Against Fraud in a COVID-19 Era Despite numerous warnings from the FBI, IRS and others, fraudsters are capitalizing on the pandemic to take advantage of consumers, highlighting the...
Three Reasons You’re Not Achieving Your Leadership Goals
Three Reasons You’re Not Achieving Your Leadership Goals Tina Giorgio: Vince Lombardi had it right when he stated that, “Leaders aren’t born, they are made.” Leadership is a process. And, like any...
2018: A Year of Fresh..
2018: A Year of Fresh.. Tina Giorgio: In an e-book published last week by PYMNTS.com, “Fresh” is how I described payments in 2018. I can’t think of a time when we’ve seen as many innovations emerge...
Real Talk About Real-time Payments
Real Talk About Real-time Payments Tina Giorgio: There are many factors involved in creating a successful real-time payment system and one of those factors is education. This month I have invited...
ThinkTECH Accelerator Finalists Demonstrate Their “Whys”
ThinkTECH Accelerator Finalists Demonstrate Their “Whys” Tina Giorgio: Whether I’m working with banking professionals or with entrepreneurs in the fintech space, I have one key piece of advice: I...
COVID-19: Considerations for Card Issuers
COVID-19: Considerations for Card Issuers Community banks are the stars of the financial services industry, and during times of crisis community bankers burn brightly to provide a guiding light to...
Reflecting on ICBA Bancard’s 35-Year History of Success
Reflecting on ICBA Bancard’s 35-Year History of Success In celebration of ICBA Bancard’s 35th anniversary, I sat down with our Chairman Greg Deckard, president, CEO and chairman of State Bank...
Positioning ICBA Bancard for the Future: What’s Your Why?
Positioning ICBA Bancard for the Future: What’s Your Why? Back in 1985, the first Macintosh computer debuted, and by today’s standards, it was a boxy, clunky, slow unit, yet Consumer Reports gave...
The Big Trouble with Big Tech
The Big Trouble with Big Tech Last month Google unveiled its new Google Pay app—complete with a DDA-like account attached. This latest effort by Google is part of a trend of non-bank tech...
Seeing the Story Behind the Numbers: Introducing Eric Kirchner
Eric Kirchner joined the team in January 2025 as senior vice president, strategic finance. In this role, he contributes to the financial modeling and forecasting for all aspects of the ICBA...
Combating Fraud: One Attack at a Time
The numbers don’t lie: fraud losses are on the rise, with 61% of financial organizations reporting direct losses of over $500,000 in a 12-month period. In addition, 52% of mid-market organizations...
ICBA Payments is Bringing Push-to-Card Payments to Community Banks
ICBA Payments is committed to helping community banks keep pace with innovation in the payments space. When FedNow launched, ICBA Payments partnered with market leader, Pidgin, to ensure that banks...
Weighing Your Card Options with ICBA Payments
For community banks and their customers, options are key. Just as no two communities are alike, no two community banks are the same, so we need the flexibility to create solutions that meet our...
ICBA Payments and TCM Bank Welcome Kelly Kroskie as EVP of Digital Transformation
ICBA Payments, the payments subsidiary of the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), today announced the appointment of Kelly Kroskie as executive vice president, digital transformation...