Steve Kenneally

Effective September 18, 2026, Nacha is redefining International ACH Transactions (IAT) with clearer, broader language. This foundational change impacts compliance, onboarding, and operational processes. If your institution handles cross-border payments, this update is a must-know! Read the full blog about what’s changing and why it matters. https://lnkd.in/e6JPKmNn

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Fraud tied to paper checks remains one of the most persistent challenges in the payments system. This week, the Innovative Payments Association submitted comments to the prudential banking regulators on their RFI addressing check fraud. Our recommendations highlight: > The need for stronger collaboration and data sharing across stakeholders > Expanded education for consumers and businesses > Continued progress toward secure, regulated electronic payments Read more about our perspective and see the full comment letter here: https://lnkd.in/eby9W-63 

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CD Valet: Banks Use Digital Tools to Boost CD Rates Mary Grace Roske, APR, Head of Marketing and Communications for CD Valet, stated, “This demonstrates that many banks and credit unions are standing out by offering attractive rates to generate deposits, with some promotional CDs emerging with particularly competitive terms. Savers should take action today to lock in these competitive rates.” Read More:- https://lnkd.in/df2bsSem #CDValet #news #ftb #fintech #financialtechnology #financialservices #news #competitive #creditunion #marketingandcommunications

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Fraud is no longer a future risk, it’s a present-day operational challenge. 👀 Alloy’s State of Fraud Report, released this week, shows 67% of financial institutions are experiencing an increase in fraud events, with credit unions and regional/community banks absorbing the sharpest impact. To unpack what this data actually means in practice, The FR editors sat down with Marc Weisman, VP of Product at Alloy, for a deeper conversation on how fraud is evolving in the age of AI and where many institutions are falling behind. Together, they explore critical questions shaping fraud strategy in 2026: 👉 How is AI changing the economics of fraud? 👉 Which AI-enabled fraud tactics are most misdiagnosed by banks right now? 👉 What common blind spots are you seeing in detection? 👉 How should institutions rethink fraud models when the “attacker” is no longer human? Do traditional rules or scoring models fail under automated attack patterns? 👉 How is AI blurring the line between third-party fraud, first-party fraud, and scams? 👉 What would a realistic, AI-forward fraud strategy look like in 2026, and how does that differ from what most banks are actually doing today? 📊 Read the full breakdown from their conversation here: https://lnkd.in/gwXdyu-G #Fintech #FraudPrevention #RiskManagement #Compliance #IdentityVerification #FinancialCrime #AIinFintech #BankingInnovation

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I have posted this week's Internet Banking News and The Email Banking News newsletters at https://lnkd.in/eSQ7EgQ. Our Gold Star independent pen-testing uses the same security rankings required by FFIEC for community banks and credit unions. In addition, our testing firm uses artificial intelligence to detect known threats as well as unknown vulnerabilities. They also perform more than 2 billion tests per year. For more information, please visit https://lnkd.in/ghdxDCfh. 🎅 ⛄Have a great New Year. 🎄

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Nonbank payment providers now carry a large share of transaction activity, and bank partners need a clear way to judge whether those programs are ready to launch. Today, the Coalition for Financial Ecosystem Standards released our Payments Module, the next step in a standards library that started with our Core Risk and Compliance Standards and grew with the Lending Module. What's in the Payments Module: - Payments Standards with a 5-tier maturity matrix across five categories, from governance and funds management to merchant risk and consumer protection - A Pre-Launch Checklist outlining the risk, operational and customer-readiness controls a payment product should have in place before going live "The launch of this Payments Module and Pre-Launch Checklist gives nonbank providers and their bank partners a shared, repeatable roadmap to track launch readiness and mitigate settlement and operational risks," said CFES Co-Founder Sima Gandhi. Like the Lending Module, this one sits on top of the Core Standards and takes that foundation into payments-specific ground like settlement, reconciliation, safeguarding customer funds and error resolution. It works for organizations of any size or operating model and gives the industry a consistent way to measure payment program maturity without adding new regulatory requirements. View the Payments Standards and Checklist: https://lnkd.in/e8wcrYVu

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Treasury Prime Joins U.S. Bank Connected Partnership Network to Expand Access to Embedded Banking Technology Read more: https://lnkd.in/dcVTbVRi #TreasuryPrime #USBank #EmbeddedBanking #BankingTechnology #FintechPartnership #OpenBanking #finance #fintech #FinancialIT

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Someone taps "apply." A minute later: Loan approved. That's all the consumer sees. What's invisible is the engine underneath: identity verification, affordability assessment, a web of coordinating institutions, and safeguards watching for what could go wrong. It starts with identity. Institutions need confidence in who they're dealing with, leaning on systems like NIN and BVN. This matters most in a market where many consumers lack formal credit histories. Verified identity is the foundation everything else depends on. The harder question is affordability, not eligibility. Income data, transaction behavior, obligations and repayment history feed credit scoring and risk models, not to exclude people, but to lend what they can actually manage, not simply what they requested. Get this wrong, and the fallout is real: strained households, riskier portfolios, eroding trust in formal credit. No single institution runs this alone. Banks supply lending capacity and regulated channels. Fintechs bring reach and user experience. Payment providers move funds. Credit and identity infrastructure inform decisions. Development finance institutions fund and structure the lenders. The consumer never sees who does what; they just expect it to work, which is why coordination matters so much. A weakness anywhere in the chain ripples elsewhere, and at scale, small issues turn systemic. Scale is the real test. Handling thousands of applications a month means building for exceptions, not just the routine path: a mismatched identity record should be flagged and resolved, not waved through for speed. That is operational excellence: not the absence of problems, but the capacity to catch and respond to them early. Speed only matters once the foundation is sound, and disbursement is the only part outsiders usually see, which is why it's easy to mistake it for the whole system. The work continues after the money lands. Approval feels like the finish line to the consumer; operationally, it's the halfway point. Monitoring repayment patterns and emerging stress isn't just enforcement, it's a feedback loop that should sharpen how institutions assess risk and design products going forward. Bottom line: Operational excellence means building a system that can grow without losing its judgement: one that verifies, assesses, monitors, responds and improves as it scales. The real question isn't whether Nigeria's credit ecosystem can get bigger and faster. It's whether it can get smarter, safer, and built to last.

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