(DESCRIPTION) On the screen is the cover of the webinar presentation deck and it reads, “Building Resilience with an Effective Payments Strategy.” Underneath the title is an illustration below of an oversized megaphone along with multiple illustration so people in various positions, shaking hands, talking, working on a laptop. In the bottom right corner text says, “Presented in Partnership:” and underneath the text is the Elan Credit Card logo and Elavon logo. (DESCRIPTION) Linda Lafortune from CUInsight appears in a video square. She is wearing a black button up and on left of her screen it reads, “Linda Lafortune.” (SPEECH – LINDA LAFORTUNE) So excited to have several industry leaders with us today to discuss how your credit union can use an effective payment strategy to build resiliency through member loyalty, enhanced technology, and security efforts. I'm thrilled to introduce Megan Miller, Vice president, Head of FI Partner Development at Elavon, who will lead our panel discussion today. Megan, I'll hand it over to you to get us going. I'll just give Megan a second here to get her camera on. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Camera is not turning on for some reason. It, it was working five seconds ago, so what's up there? Um, but I'll go ahead, here we go. (SPEECH – LINDA LAFORTUNE) Gotta love technology, right? It always chooses not to work when we need it to. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Yeah. We'll go ahead and kick it off, and I'll try to figure out my camera, um, while we're kind of talking with the panelists here. (SPEECH – LINDA LAFORTUNE) Sounds great. (DESCRIPTION) The speaker video featuring Linda Lafortune is now disabled. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Um, hopefully you all can still see my screen. (DESCRIPTION) Slide changes to one with 4 headshots. On the left the title says Moderator and underneath it is Megan Miller’s headshot and the words “Megan Miller, VP, Head of FI Partner Development, Elavon.” To the right it has the header “Panelists” separated with a bold black vertical bar. Underneath are three headshots, from left to right, Matt Good’s headshot along with “Matt Good, Director of Regional Partnerships, Elan Credit Card.” Jordan Reynolds headshot along with “Jordan Reynolds, Head of Global Platforms, Elavon,” and Tolan Steele’s headshot along with “Tolan Steele, SVP, North America Consumer Payments, Visa.” (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Good afternoon, everybody. Sorry for the technology glitch here. You know, it's an absolute pleasure of mine to be able to welcome you to today's panel discussion. As Linda mentioned, the topic for conversation today is building resiliency with an effective payment strategy. You know, while we're in this era where the financial landscape is rapidly evolving, understanding the intricacies of the payment landscape has never been more critical for all parties involved. So, we've brought today, some esteemed guests. You know, our focus will be on how do we navigate this complex environment, to build customer loyalty, increase efficiency, and enhance your security. You know, the payment landscape itself today is really marked by technological advancements, regulatory changes and shifting consumer behaviors that I'm sure we are all very familiar with. And as credit union leaders, you're really at the forefront of this transformation task with adopting strategies that not only meet, you know, the current demands, but also, we really have to start thinking about anticipating the future trends. Right? So, to explore these themes, I have the distinct honor of being able to moderate the discussion today. But I brought with me three esteemed panelists. First, I'll introduce Matt Good. He is the Director of Regional Sales at Elan (DESCRIPTION) A small square appears in the top right corner of Matt Good. In his video box he is wearing a white button-down shirt and has his name “Matt Good” is listed on the bottom left. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) and has been, with Elan for 25 years. He'll share insights on how credit unions can develop robust issuing strategies that really cater to the member needs while ensuring that financial stability that we're all looking for. Next, we have Jordan Reynolds. He's an expert in merchant acquiring and he's going to provide a perspective on the merchant experience and opportunities to really drive home security and innovation when being presented with payment opportunities. And then we have Tolan Steele, drawing on his 20 years and different roles within the Visa network, who's going to be able to provide us with a broader perspective on maintaining brand integrity. You know, really growing from your, business banking, you know, arm and building security and customer trust into your payment offerings. So together they'll provide a comprehensive view on how we build a resilient payment strategy that drives, that supports future growth, fosters that loyalty that we're all driving toward, and most importantly, safeguards the member data. So let's dive into the discussion and uncover the key considerations and best practices that will shape the future of payments in the credit union sector. (DESCRIPTION) Matt Good’s video box disappears. (DESCRIPTION) On the slide in the top right it says, “Member Experience.” There is a blue circle icon on the left with a graph and rising arrow. To the right it reads, “Studies have shown that high-performing CU leaders – focused on loyalty – experience 72% higher member growth” with the 72% higher in bold text. On the bottom right hand small text reads, “Source: CUManagement and Member Loyalty Group.” (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) With that, it's no surprise here, but studies are showing that when loyalty is at the forefront for credit unions, the credit unions are seeing 72% higher member growth over credit unions that are not prioritizing loyalty. I'll start with Matt Good from Elan to kind of start us off in the questioning. Matt, the credit union philosophy of people helping people is done primarily through that member experience. How has the evolving payment environment changed your strategy to be able to support that mindset? (DESCRIPTION) Matt Good’s video box reappears. (SPEECH – MATT GOOD) Yeah. Well, well good afternoon, everybody. And Megan, nice talking with you and Linda again, and Jordan and Tolan, great talking with you as well. And thank you to all the credit union folks for joining. You know, it's interesting when you, look at the credit union industry there, if you're in the industry for any period of time at all, you realize that the mantra of people helping people is real. It's sincere. It's not just a slogan. It's as you, as you suggest in your question, Megan, that it's a philosophy, it's a mindset. I mean, there are credit union leaders and employees all over the country as we're talking, doing everything they can to try to make sure that they're helping keep their members and the member experience with their credit union as positive as possible. And it's interesting to have watched over the years and over the decades, how the industry has progressed. You know, we - Elan, has been working with - Elan Credit Card, has been working with credit unions since 1976, so going on 50 years now. We work with close to 300 credit unions in all 50 states. I've been, as you've mentioned in the intro, I've been associated with Elan, for 25 of those years in different roles and capacities. But I've worked with credit unions that entire time, and when you look at the industry in some ways, the expectations that members have of the credit union has dramatically changed, I would say even in the last four or five years. One basic way though it hasn't changed, and that's why members are so loyal to credit unions, they're loyal to you, because they're loyal to your brand. Your brand represents the company they've worked with for their entire career, or their mom and dads have worked for, or even their grandparents. They're committed to you because of the commitment that you've given to their community where they live, where they've chosen to raise their families. They're loyal to you because they see you at the Friday night softball games or at church on Sunday. You know, they like you, they trust you, they know you. That's why they're trusting you with their financial services. That hasn't changed, but of course, the world around us has greatly changed in the last few years. We’re living in a, I'm sure we'd all agree, a very digital world. We operate, we transact, we do our payments in a digital marketplace. We do our banking in a digital marketplace. And on top of that, members are, and we can all relate to this, are busier than ever. They don't have a spare minute, let alone a spare hour in their day. So they're looking for, how can I handle my banking and my transactions in a digital way at my timing? You know, they don't, they no longer want to fill out paper applications to get a credit card. It's got to be online or even through technology like text-to-apply or scanning QR codes, they want to be able to handle their, look at their statement and handle their transactions at their timing. If they want to file a dispute, they don't want to have to call you. They want to do it through your mobile app, whether it be two in the afternoon or two in the morning. And the key to all this is, of course, credit unions have had to quickly adapt to this and ensure that you have the technology and the capabilities to meet these needs. It's not going to build loyalty with your member so much as it's going to protect the loyalty that you have. And with the threat of larger banks having these technologies, uh, fintechs, online banks, it's more important than ever that as a credit union, you take a look and really do an honest assessment of where you are with those capabilities and technologies so you can protect that loyalty. (SPEECH – LINDA LAFORTUNE) Just jumping in here. (DESCRIPTION) Matt Good’s video box disappears. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Thanks Matt, Tolan, is there anything that you would add? Sorry. (DESCRIPTION) A small square appears in the top right corner of Tolan Steele. In his video box he is wearing a green polo and has his name “Tolan Steele” is listed on the bottom left. (SPEECH – TOLAN STEELE) Sure, Megan, Thanks, I was just waiting for the handoff, I couldn't agree with Matt more, and let me first start by saying I really appreciate those of you that do business with Visa and put the Visa brand alongside yours on one of your payment products. It's much appreciated. Very quick personal story, it is actually members like you that brought me to Visa more than 25 years ago, because I loved how the support of the Visa brand access to the Visa technology could make the smallest of FIs able to make and leverage their direct and personal connection with a consumer and compete alongside some of the biggest brands. So, I just wanted to say that and say, you all are the origin of my coming to Visa, and I think, just echoing very quickly what Matt said, if there's one thing that's changed in the 25 years I've been here, it's just that ongoing march of technology, which again, is a neutral tool. We saw at the beginning of this call when technology's not going in your direction, it can be a frustration, but when it's there and working well, it completely adds to your scale. It allows you to focus on what you do best, which is connecting with the consumer. And it speaks to, and delivers on what Matt said around the consumer expectation, which is increasing convenience, access, always on capabilities and so forth. So, from a Visa perspective, obviously, we've taken our network, our brand, and we as people, the people that work at Visa, on a journey of just enabling that and doing more with that. As we'll talk in the later sections of today's presentation, AI is another step function that we all need to be aware of. Again, just a tool and if used well can be a big unlock, and if used against us in the hands of fraudsters can be a major source of pain and frustration. So, we'll talk about all of that. But thanks again for the opportunity to join you today and looking forward to the conversation. (DESCRIPTION) Tolan Steele’s video box disappears. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Thanks, Tolan. (DESCRIPTION) On the slide in the top right corner it says, “Member Experience.” There is a blue circle icon on the left with an illustration of three people and rising arrow. To the right it reads, “66% of financial leaders say that a more efficient payment process would improve customer satisfaction” with improve customer satisfaction in bold text. On the bottom right hand small text reads, “Source: U.S. Bank Payments Transformation Report.” (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) All right, so we'll jump forward a bit. You know, as Matt and Tolan shared, a focus on driving loyalty through technology is critical, especially when it works, right? So, driving efficiencies are just as critical in the world that we live in today as it's so interconnected. And so, efficiencies are front and center. That said, 66% of financial leaders are saying that a more efficient payment process would improve customer status or consumer satisfaction, And I'll go, Jordan, I guess, to you first on this one. Improving efficiency for a flawless user experience is essential. How important do you think technology is for building the payment process? (DESCRIPTION) A small square appears in the top right corner of Jordan Reynolds. In his video box he is wearing a collared shirt and black suit coat and has his name “Jordan Reynolds” is listed on the bottom left. (SPEECH – JORDAN REYNOLDS) Thanks, Megan, and I appreciate the opening comments from Matt and Tolan, and great to join you both on the panel for this discussion. As we think about technology, and I'm going to put the lens of merchant acquiring as we think of our business, which is ultimately the enablement of consumer and business payments acceptance, it's foundational. It's probably the thing that, you know, I wake up thinking about and the thing I go to sleep thinking about, which is how do we leverage technology to drive better experiences for both our merchants and consumers alike? And as we think about the concept of payment, payment acceptance, and presenting your card using a digital wallet, tapping on the phone, paying with bank, paying with the mobile app, all of those pieces become really important for enablement to drive a frictionless, seamless consumer experience. As we look at the consumer landscape today and how it's evolved over time, consumers all have smartphones and they're very used to using the app like experience of a smartphone, and they have an expectation that when they use and make payments that that frictionless experience will continue. And we can drive as much of the experience to being invisible and happening behind the scenes so that a consumer can procure the goods or services they're looking to procure from a merchant, from a business and move on. And so that's really, I would say, number one as I think about technology. The second is, as I think about the, some of the businesses we ultimately serve that are enabling, and we are enabling payments acceptance for, we see that merchants, we see a trend that's starting to emerge where they have an expectation that the payments are embedded in the overall experience and it's embedded in terms of how they run their business, how they report, how they manage their AR revenue cycles. And it's important for the payments to be a piece that fit into the broader way that they operate and run their business. So, for example, if we look in the healthcare space, we see a range of technology enabled payment options for patient engagement, whether it's text-to-pay, whether it's sending an invoice via email, whether it's paying at a provider's location via contact list, you know, card or digital wallet, which A, helps drive better patient engagement, And B, most importantly for healthcare providers, it helps them more effectively manage their accounts receivable and drive a quicker revenue cycle. So, with that, Megan, I'll turn it back over to you. (DESCRIPTION) Speaker mode has been turned on in the settings so going forward the box in the top right corner will appear based on who is speaking. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Thanks, Jordan, I'll kick it over to Matt to give some perspective on driving efficiencies. (SPEECH – MATT GOOD) Yeah, I think there's definitely a theme from all of us here in the first few minutes and it's about the fact that technology is, without a doubt, not slowing down and being able to provide a positive digital banking, and payments, experience is absolutely critical for you to provide to your members. You know, what's interesting, Tolan, we were talking the other day a little bit about this and the fact that while it's important across all demographics, I think we'd also all agree that the younger adult generations are definitely looking for this, the ability to handle their payments and their banking in a digital perspective. I have had the privilege of speaking with credit union leaders, and have for years, on a regular basis, and one of the questions I always like to ask is, you know, the basic question, “What keeps you awake at night?” You know, “what is one of your big concerns?” And it's clear over the last few years that one of the most common responses is, “How do we attract a younger membership base? Our membership base is aging dramatically. We're not appealing to younger members. How do we win them over, especially with the threat of fintechs and online banks?” And I think that concern is valid. We just recently saw a study that showed that fewer than 20% of American young adults under the age of 40, the Gen Zs and the millennials are banking with credit unions. So that's a big challenge, it's also a big opportunity. And certainly, a starting point is to be sure that you have the payment tools they're looking for, like tap-to-pay, like buy now, pay later, access to digital wallets and so forth. You know, one big example that we're seeing in the industry is, we saw a study recently from Finalytics showing that by the end of this year, over 50% of all credit applications received by credit unions will be digital. So again, the younger adult generations expect that if they're going to bank with you, that you have those kinds of capabilities available. And, Elan Credit Card, and certainly I know Jordan can speak for Elavon Merchant Services, we've invested in an enormous amount of resource into digital technology over the last few years, including our fraud security technology as well. And we've certainly partnered with great partners like Visa to ensure that we can provide the credit unions we partner with the seamless And frictionless payments experience that their members demand. I'll give you one example, Megan, we just recently announced at Elan a partnership with a national digital wallet called Paze, which enables members to be able to have a convenient, personalized and secure payments experience. We have to continue to invest in that to be sure that our credit union partners are keeping up with what their members demand. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Makes sense, Matt, for sure. Tolan, anything that you would add? (SPEECH – TOLAN STEELE) I think the points have been covered really well. Meeting consumers where they are, particularly getting to younger consumers means getting to their phones. If you've got 14 and 16-year-old like I do, they're getting their allowance via digital app. That also then creates the point that Matt mentioned, which is very small players can look really big in the minds of their consumers. But, you know, what really matters is that you kind of always maintain your dual focus on convenience and ease of use alongside security, which is where the trust elements come in. That's what makes an FI and FIs as compared to a fintech, in my view, is the ability to deliver on security and trust. But it's, you know, the, what I'll also say, because I think it's important to come around to this, I know technology and the need to keep up with it can be disconcerting, but again, if used well, it allows all of you to do what you do best, which is focused on the member, focused on the end user consumer. And I'll say the same thing on the merchant side. Merchants don't want to be in the payment business. They want to sell their goods, they want to sell their services, they want to take that payment quickly and securely and focus on their business, be it a retailer, a dining establishment or something else, and consumers are the same way. So embedded is a word that Jordan used, and I think that's one I use almost daily, because that's really where you want to get to, not just with your payments, but with your general use of technology, again, so that the people part can then be the part that pops, which I think for your members and for these FIs, like you, I think probably matters most as being part of your key hook to why you're the one that has that account and are holding those funds. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Hmm, yeah, no doubt. You know, convenience is driving many of the decisions that we're making, And I love to hear, you know, even the children these days are getting their allowance and checking off their chores via an app or a digital wallet type setup. So, with that, we'll shift to convenience (DESCRIPTION) On the slide in the top right corner it says, “Payment Preferences.” There is a blue circle icon on the left with an illustration of cash register. To the right it reads, “A recent study showed that 84% of consumers chose the payment method they used for an in-person transaction based on its convenience. Followed by 49% of consumers who chose the fastest option and 37% who made their choice because it was familiar to them” with convenience, fastest, and familiar in bold text. On the bottom right hand small text reads, “Source: Elan Credit Card Top 5 Merchant Payment Trends.” (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) and share that a recent study showed 84% of consumers chose their payment methods that they used for in-person transactions based on convenience, right? So, we're talking mobile wallets, we're talking about the adoption of mobile wallets hugely increasing. Followed by 49% of consumers who chose the fastest option, and 37% who made their choice because it was familiar to them. So, I'm sure we can all relate to that, right? We want to do what's easy and familiar as consumers and giving the consumers an option, really meeting them where they're at, has a direct correlation to the growth potential, not only for the credit unions, but their business members as well as the consumers out there. So, Tolan, I'll start with you this time, can you share your thoughts on the importance of allowing people to pay with their preferred payment method? (SPEECH – TOLAN STEELE) Sure, let me start by just observing that, again, this was more the era of the sixties and seventies, maybe the eighties, but when people were primarily paying with cash and check, think of how few interactions they had with your bank and your brand, because they might go to an ATM once or twice a month. They might pull out their checkbook, they would deposit their paycheck. Certainly, that would be happening digitally, but, as debit cards came into play and credit cards as well, that's just a much more frequent presentation of the bank's brand and a more frequent interaction between the consumer and the FI. And that's really from a Visa perspective, why we love being in payments, is it takes something that used to be interactions counted in low numbers, you know, 1, 2, 3 transactions a month at the ATM or at the branch, and suddenly it becomes a daily interaction. So just, again, it's that constant reinforcement of trust. It's a constant challenge because if it doesn't work, if you can't get access to your money, well now we have a problem. But when it does work well, again, it's an incredibly positive thing. Hence the importance of payments in your overall FI strategy. And as has been really well covered, there’s a high expectation of things being digital, seamless, convenient, you have to meet consumers where they are, and increasingly they are online. This is the year, uh, two things worth calling out in the last year and a half, One, more than half of volume on debit is now card not present. And look, e-commerce used to be the place that you'd shop with the credit card. If there's a risk, let the bank absorb that risk, and there's zero liability to protect the consumer. But what we saw in the run up to, and then accelerated by the pandemic, is now, even debit is being used more online than offline, by which I mean, there are more transactions occurring digitally and over e-commerce than necessarily in person. So, while, yes, there's still grocery and gas and in-person purchases happening, their consumers are increasingly, especially younger consumers who may have a preference for debit because they're adverse or aware that people have fallen into a trap with credit if they can't manage it, those are still digital. And again, more than half of our system is c and p. This is also the year, by the way, that we will pass over more than half of physical transactions being tap-to-pay and that has been an amazing journey of more than five, ten years. I briefly worked in Singapore. It was a market that was 90% contactless when I went there in 2015, and the U.S. was well behind it. Well, in the time since I was in Singapore and came back, the U.S. has now also become a tap- to-pay market. And some of that is, again, what consumers expect. Much of that is what the wallets have done to make payments more convenient and embedded in the phones, and then the fact that we haven't lost security by virtue of tokenization. We've kept those transactions very safe, very secure as we've gone. So, I just, I call all those out as again, an evidence of how the market's changed in a very short time, But it's the importance of digital, the importance of convenience, and then always reinforcing security through the technology with things like tokenization. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Thanks, Tolan. Matt, I'll kick it over to you for any additional feedback. (SPEECH – MATT GOOD) Yeah, I was listening to Tolan, and I can remember going to presentations put on by Visa and others years ago where they talked about the majority of debit cards in the far future, being the majority online, and it's just staggering that the time is now. So that's amazing to me. And, you know, I think without a doubt, it is all about convenience. And another area where we've seen some incredible advancements in the world of payments is in the whole idea of the Global Internet of Things, the idea where you can make, with this smart technology, you're purchasing goods and services through your smartphone, your smartwatch speakers, even your refrigerator or car. That's just staggering. And then consumers are certainly comfortable with it. Now, thanks to the great investment in the industry from Visa and from others where the data tokenization has greatly advanced, where consumers are comfortable, they feel safe that their data's not going to be compromised when they do those transactions. We saw recently that 44 billion devices are connected to the Internet of Things. It'll be well over $900 billion in transactions through devices by the end of this year, so consumers have bought into it, insurers understand it, and credit unions know this to be the case, and the other important group that knows this are retailers. 10And in fact, a study by Harvard Business Review recently showed that 70% of retailers considered a top priority that they'd be able to accept payments in a way that their shoppers want to pay. And they know that the line is blurred between in- person payments and payments, like tap-to-pay and using payment with a digital wallet through QR codes and so forth. And Tolan is right that retailers don't want to have to deal with that. They’re looking for partners or financial institutions that they trust that can come along and help them with that. And certainly as a credit union, as you're looking to the future, again, not to sound like a broken record, but either you have to invest in the technology or find trusted partners like Visa, like Elan Credit Card, or Elavon Merchant Services, or others who can help navigate this and make sure that you're providing the payments and meeting the payments expectation of your members. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Thanks, Matt. Jordan, I'll kick it over to you for any last words on this topic. (SPEECH – JORDAN REYNOLDS) Great. Thanks Megan. And Matt and Tolan, couldn't agree with you both more in terms of the journey we're on and I think it's, I look at it as tracking and seeing where consumer preferences are. It's a journey and it's a multi-year journey that, you know, we are maybe not in the early innings anymore in terms of the digital journey and being digital native, but we're maybe in the middle inning in the U.S. market, and I say that because consumer preferences are really entrenched, and they take time to shift and change. And, you know, Tolan mentioned the contactless shift. As we look at the last five years, for example, pre COVID, and now I guess we'll call post COVID or post pandemic, you know, things getting back to normal. We saw an explosion of contactless payments in the last five years. And part of that has to do with the environment. Part of that has to do with where we were as a country. Part of that has to do with just technology and consumers getting comfortable with it, and accessibility, and whether someone uses a tap-to-pay card or whether they use that are, that are now ubiquitous across, I would say most, if not all, issuers, certainly on the Visa side, Tolan. But, you know, I think being engaging customers and consumers and having them use those solutions is important. And as we think about, you know, consumer preferences, more importantly, I think understanding as we look at our customers and we look at merchants and businesses out there of all stripes, whether it be an SMB, whether it be a mid-market company, whether it be an enterprise, helping them understand how they engage with their consumers in the simplest way, whether you're a retailer, whether you're a healthcare provider, whether you are in hospitality or an airline, there’re all kinds of different use cases in terms of engagement with set consumer and being able to present options for payment acceptance are really critical. So, for example, does the merchant, if it's a retail customer, have an in-store and online footprint, and they want to provide a seamless buying experience between the two, right? I can order online, go pick it up in the store. I can order online, go return it to the store, or vice versa. Things like the enablement of digital wallets and storing a customer, a consumer's payment preferences on file can help ensure that consumers have options as it relates to that checkout experience. And then lastly, you know, Matt and Tolan both touched on the rise of digital wallets and mobile wallets, and how that has helped drive the explosion of contactless payments and the use of consumers of contactless payments over the last several years. As we look at from a, you know, from a bank perspective more broadly, from Elavon and Elan and, the parent company, U.S. Bank, the banks are introducing the Paze digital wallet, which is essentially another mechanism to engage our collective consumers and population of customers to drive those experiences and to drive a better experience for our customers to make payments. And so that's another area that we're keenly focused on enabling within the merchant ecosystem, not just, you know, with our merchants, but more broadly, and I think that's something that credit unions can certainly take advantage as that comes online and as more banks and credit unions participate in that initiative. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Makes sense. Thanks, Jordan. All right. You know, driving loyalty conveniences and really efficiencies through technological advancements, is certainly front and center, obviously, as we're hearing from Matt, Jordan and Tolan for our card brands, our card issuing and card acquiring front to drive growth. However, it's not without a tremendous focus and investment from a security perspective. You know, card member data security is such an important component of offering a payment solution from a new front, and a recent report from Nilson stated that card fraud alone could cost the U.S. companies billions of dollars by 2030. And in a survey of finance leaders, 60% said that awareness of the need for security in the payments process has never been so high. So, with that said, Tolan, I'll kick this question to you. What security trends are you seeing in the marketplace for financial institutions specifically? (SPEECH – TOLAN STEELE) Right, Megan, thank you. I actually, I appreciate the chance to go first on this one. I was actually Chief Risk Officer for our Asia Pacific region for two years. It was a job that brought me to Asia, and it was just another form of working, thinking about your business in the payments ecosystem, because it's often the FI who ultimately is the one trying to convey the trust in supporting the customer, whether zero liability on cards or increasingly dealing with the challenges of (DESCRIPTION) On the slide in the top right corner it says, “Security.” There is a blue circle icon on the left with an illustration of lock within a badge. To the right it reads, “A recent report from Nilson stated that credit card fraud alone could cost U.S. companies over $397 billion dollars by 2030. In a survey of finance leaders, 60% said that awareness of the need for security in the payment process has never been so high” with need for security in bold text. On the bottom right hand small text reads, “Source: Elan Credit Card 5 Evolving Attack Methods in Credit Card Fraud.” (SPEECH – TOLAN STEELE) where the fraud is moving into, which is now the ACH, the real time payment or the Zelle channel. A couple things, just to kind of extend what I said earlier, you've got to always have an equal, I think of them as plant legs. And to keep balance, you've got one strong leg on consumer desire, seamlessness, and convenience. But your other plant leg has to be just as strong on security rigor, inventorying the data to make sure you see how the associated information with the payment, and ultimately as you authorize that payment, you feel confident you can stand behind it. Visa's been doing AI for decades. We just didn't call it AI, we called it neural networks. And that's been some of the technology that sits behind Visa Advanced authorization and some of the decisioning scores we provide you so that you or your processor can make effective and very quick authorization decisions when people are trying to pay. We detect patterns of fraud, and we continue to use AI now to make those detections more evident, which is good because AI is also playing a role on the hacker side. We all know that urban, they're not even urban myths. We know they're true. You know, the text message or the email from someone from an African country saying, “Oh, if you could just help me get access to my money and move it into the U.S. I'll pay you back.” Those scripts are getting - the typos are going away; they're becoming more convincing. And there's been recently a lot of media stories about people being duped. And these are people in financial services who have been trained in how to spot these things. That's how effective the fraudsters are getting to be with technology in support. So again, we have to use technology for us and raise the sophistication of our awareness of transactions. This is a place that I think transactions becoming more digital is helpful because it allows us to capture that transaction and look at things beyond the typical transaction data like amount or time or location, but look at things like, who's the merchant? Um, is this a recurring payment? What's the IP address associated with that attempt? And incorporate all of that into the decisioning around an authorization. The last thing I'll say is it's really imperative that we look at this holistically, I appreciate that you all might think of Visa as a payments company, and specifically, as a card payments company, but we're increasingly seeing interest from our clients and working to deploy some of the same security technology we have against other payment types, not just on Visa transactions, but on other networks, and not just on card network transactions, but other payment flows like account to account. And if you've had the, from what I've spoken, I hope it's not true for this population, but I know in other discussions I've had with people in the industry, the fastest growing area of fraud they see is actually a non-card payment fraud. This might be account to account, it might be ACH, it might be on Zelle. And again, some of it is that those types of payments appreciate that they don't have interchange, they're cheaper to accept for the merchant. They also don't have all the same controls and history, in terms of security protocols to protect them. So, I just think that's something we got to look at holistically. At the end of the day, the payment is a way to get more information out of the consumer so you can ultimately get access to the account and do other nefarious things like account takeover and so forth. So that's just really why you need to look at it holistically and use technology as one of the tools to help you be as strong as ever. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Yeah, totally. And couldn't agree more. You know, we're definitely in this together. Jordan, I'll take it over to you for any additional feedback on the question. (SPEECH – JORDAN REYNOLDS) Yeah, so I think Tolan hit on some of the key points. What I would add is protecting card and account holder credentials is the lifeblood of what we have to do every day, especially given the current digital landscape and Tolan touched on it. We've got advanced AI tools that are out there. We've got ever evolving fraud techniques, data hacks, compromises across the board. And we constantly have to monitor our own, not just exposure and our transactional processing environment, but our exposure through connections to technology with our own customers and what's happening at our own customers. And so, as we look at our efforts, we are really focused on continuing to enable things like point-to-point encryption, which is essentially tokenizing a transaction from the time that primary account number is captured, end to end across all of the different technology hops and integration points between us, various technology providers, our customers, the card networks like Visa and others out there in the market so that the credentials are secure and cannot be compromised. Tolan touched on Visa for a long time has been doing, you know, working with AI in transactional processing and we're doing the same. And in some cases we're partnering to use some of their tools around how we monitor transactions live, assigning a fraud and risk score basic, you know, basing it on amounts, basing it on merchant trends and payment trends and history, IP addresses, business type, all of those different data components become really important in understanding what the profile of a customer is, how they're transacting, how customers are transacting, consumers are transacting with them. And what that means, I think that the last two points that I would highlight are we, the payments ecosystem is very large and complex, and there's a lot of different players and there's a lot of different integration points. And it gets back to how we let it off around technology, ensuring that we have secured at every stage of that, of that process, whether it be a software provider, whether it be a processor, whether it be a card network, whether it be anyone in between is really critical. And that's, when we think about it from an Elavon perspective, that's what we're really focused on. And lastly, for credit unions specifically, I think ensuring that you have the right partners that are taking this at the forefront because there is real financial exposure and liability that's on the table as we look at the merchant business day in and day out. And, you know, we have to be incredibly diligent about that. So, ensuring that we've got all of the layers of security and control over transactional processing is, you know, of paramount importance. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Couldn't agree more. Thanks, Jordan. You know, it's no small feat, fending off the fraudsters. I guess I'll kick a question over to you, Matt, as we're talking about security. You know, what measures should a credit union prioritize to ensure that the security and integrity of their payment systems and their member data is secure? (SPEECH – MATT GOOD) I love listening to both Tolan and Jordan talk about all the different aspects of this, because this is a major topic that is coming up. You know, I mentioned earlier how I'll ask credit union leaders, “what are you concerned about?” And when we're starting to talk about a potential credit card partnership, and we're saying, “What are the concerns you have in the industry?” Fraud is always in the top degree and data security and protecting themselves and most importantly, their members. In fact, we just recently published a white paper on the topic about the top five trends we're seeing in online scams, and I definitely encourage everybody to come to our website, reach out to us. We'd love to get you a copy of and talk about it. But I would say, a couple of basic things are very important for credit unions to look at; education and picking the right partners. As far as education, investing the resources into education for both your members and your employees. You know, your employees are the first line of defense. So, making sure that your employees and your members understand where threats are potentially going to come from. They could come from phone calls, they could come from traditional letters, they could come from emails or texts. You know, they could certainly come on social media and being able to give the education to understand and identify potential threats when they happen. And then what do you do with that threat? What are the proper protocols, what can you do to protect yourself, to protect your member and the credit union? That's incredibly important to look into. And then I think a second thing, again, is picking the right partners. The great news about the credit union industry is you are so collaborative, and you have so many great resources available to you for whether you're large credit union, multi-billion dollar credit union, or really small credit union. You know, there are plenty of folks who want to help, whether it be your leagues, your associations, Visa, reaching out to partners like all Elan Credit Card, Elavon Merchant Services. You know, we'd love to work with you to help you put together a strategy to protect your members in all aspects of their business with you. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Thanks, Matt. All right, we'll shift just a bit. (DESCRIPTION) On the slide in the top right corner it says, “Strategy.” There is a blue circle icon on the left with an illustration of a female and a male in business suits. To the right it reads, “A recent study of CFOs showed that 58% have a positive outlook for the U.S. Economy over the next three years, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t changes ahead for financial institutions” with positive in bold text. On the bottom right hand small text reads, “Source: U.S. Bank 2024 CFO Insights Report.” (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) We’ve got about 20 minutes to the top of the hour. And I want to kind of shift the conversation a bit to the outlook. A recent study of CFOs showed that 58%, have a positive outlook for the US economy over the next three years, but that doesn't mean that there aren't changes ahead for financial institutions, obviously. So, Tolan, I'll kick a question over to you. You know, as we think about business strategy, how has that changed, how are you adapting to the future, and how do you recommend credit unions adapt as well? (SPEECH – TOLAN STEELE) Appreciate that, Megan. Well look, just because the market's growing doesn't mean that you can sit still and keep your share. So, I think when you talk about changes for FIs, I mean that you have to, it's kind of like why there's always so many trades and a draft every year in sports leagues. Every team is trying to get better, and then they redo it, right? And replay the season and try and win games. And business is no different. You have to be adding tools at the pace that your rivals are, the people you're competing with, to get those consumer accounts, or if you're in the acquiring space, to win merchants. I think for Visa, while, you know, I know there's a lot of noise and attention going into some of the faster growing value-added services we provide, Some of them were talked about on this call, it will always be the majority of our revenue comes from the U.S. consumer card business, And because that happens to be my role at Visa, my job is to make sure that's always the case. And that's about expanding moving into payments that you're not capturing and making sure that you're earning and demonstrating your value every time, plus those two plant legs delivering convenience, but staying secure. And so those things don't change. Those are somewhat constant. I think what is changing is, again, we are increasingly looking at the need, I think the word used was holistic. We're all in this together. How can we actually decrease fraud across the entire FI ecosystem by making some of our tools available, not just on Visa card transactions, but on other networks and other types of payments. How do we further digitize payments that are still going over cash and check? Those are still vectors of fraud in the sense of they can be FI losses or consumer losses or merchant impacts. And so, again, the more digital a payment I would offer, it's so interesting, I remember businesses that used to not take card or want to take cash for various reasons, but the reality is once you're taking it digitally, the money is more secure. It's being captured digitally, being transmitted digitally, tremendous merchant value, and not having to maintain a lot of cash in the till, which then has to be transported securely. So, I just think the value added services piece and the new flows, getting into new transaction types is obviously a key part of it. And again, you all, as the holder of the core account, be that with consumers, and we haven't talked much about, but small businesses are an equally important part of this. They're looking for security. There's a lot of balances there to be supported. A tremendous amount of small businesses in the U.S. that are still learning how to use cards, whether as acceptors or as how they channel their spend for the good that comes from digital reporting, tax keeping and so forth. So, I just think that kind of thesis remains strong and then you kind of go back to what Matt and Jordan have covered so well, whether merchants or consumers, they increasingly want to see that done seamlessly and digitally and it's a lot easier for them to change their relationships now and just get a new app and start using it. It’s a less sticky environment on the digital side. We have to be aware of that, because again, I think we as an industry have enjoyed stickiness, of having an account with a cardholder where their money is kept securely. And it's just real, it's really important that you kind of just be very proactive and future looking. To add to what Matt said in the previous question, making sure everything is tokenized to make sure that it's secure. And the thing I'm going to reinforce, because I'd be remiss if I didn't do this for both Elan and Elavon, really good choice of your partners, you all couldn't have better processors helping you, whether on the issuer or the acquirer side. And that matters because those processors play a really big role for smaller FIs like credit unions. So, I think it's worth reinforcing that as well. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Thanks, Tolan. Matt, anything you'd add? (SPEECH – MATT GOOD) Well, I think when we talk about strategy, Megan, it, you know, I look at it of course from our strategy and strategy of the credit unions from the card issuing perspective, our strategy over the years at Elan, in one sense, it's changed in another sense, it's the same as it was back in 1976. You know, it's about synergy. When we truly look at it as a partnership and we partner with the credit union, and we've brought the investment in scale and the technology and the products and the rewards. We take on the risk, the expense. But what the credit union brings to the partnership is the relationships they have with their members, their presence and their marketplace, their reputation. And together we're able to really do some great things, where when we’re on our own it's a lot harder to do. So that strategy is the same today as it ever has been. Of course, as we've talked about for the last 45 minutes, the world has greatly changed, and we've had to definitely approach it differently in terms of the technology and the digital capabilities, and certainly continue to invest in all the fraud prevention. From the credit union's perspective, when you're talking about a card issuing, you know, I'm an optimist by nature, so if this sounds a bit doom and gloom, please forgive me, but it is, now is the time to really be taking a look at your strategy for credit cards. You know, we've, across the industry, losses are on the rise. A good number of credit unions are really working through their balance sheet strategies. It's become an arms race when it comes to rewards and credit card products. So, it's really, now is a great time for credit unions to kind of take a step back and look at their card products and decide, do we want to be in this business? Of course, I think the answer is probably yes, because if you're not, you're less relevant to your members in their daily lives, but then how do you go about it? Do you go full force, invest in all of it or yourselves, or do you partner up with a partner like Elan Credit Card that can help you take on the risk, the expense, enable you to invest your capital elsewhere in your credit union with your members, while offering better products and technologies to your members. So, you know, bottom line is, I think now is the time to really take a full look at your strategy and that way, no matter what you decide to do, you can look your members and your board members in the eye and say, we've looked at all options- and we've chosen the option that makes sense for our credit union. So, I think now is a great time to do that. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) I love it. Jordan, before we go into Q and A, anything you'd add? (SPEECH – JORDAN REYNOLDS) The only thing I would add is I just want to echo what Matt said. He stated it really well. Yeah, I think the way I think about the strategy is our strategy is fundamentally the same. You know, we've been in business for 30 plus years, part of U.S. Bank for the last 26, 27, and our strategy is to meet merchant needs wherever those are, right? And however those evolve, it's how we execute against the strategy that's really changed, right? And it's driving more digital experiences, it's modernizing our capabilities, it's enabling new consumer experiences and seeing where the market leads. And I think that's, for me, that's the critical point here, which is we still want to serve our customers, It's the how and what we're doing to support them in terms of whatever dynamics are changing out there in the market. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Whole-heartedly agree, Jordan, it's beyond the loyalty driven through. We've got their GDA, you know, we've got a credit card. It's do you have the right credit card? Do you have the right products and partners that really drive that loyalty and stickiness that I think Tolan spoke to earlier. So, we'll jump into the q and a portion of the webinar here. Feel free to use the chat to drop in your q and a. Um, I'll go ahead, and I'll open this up broadly to the panel and you all jump in. We'll start with, um, for smaller credit unions that may not have the budget to stay up to date on the most recent payment strategies, is there a starting point that you'd recommend? (SPEECH – MATT GOOD) Hmm. Well, you know, I'll take a shot at it and then certainly, uh, Tolan and Jordan jump in. I mean, I think, again, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, you know, the great news about being a credit union is it is such a collaborative industry. I've never seen an industry where you think you'd be competitors, but you're really trying to help each other out. So, I would say certainly take a look at those credit unions that are doing it well. Uh, I'd say certainly reach out to your leagues, reach out to partners like Elan Credit Card, uh, like Elavon Merchant Services and look for good partners that can sit down and really provide you options for your strategy. (SPEECH – TOLAN STEELE) Yeah, and just to build on what Matt said, like Visa's got a really strong partnership with Elan. (DESCRIPTION) On the left side of the slide there is a large blue circle with a messaging icon on the side and underneath it reads, “Q & A”. A vertical black bar is down the middle. On the right it reads “Thank you for attending! To learn more about the partners involved in today’s webinar visit their websites below:” then lists them in order; Elan Credit Card logo www.cupartnership.com, Elavon logo www.elavon.com, and Visa logo www.visa.com. (SPEECH – TOLAN STEELE) We have an entire consulting unit that focuses on consulting and analytics with a lot of turnkey tools that are available to you. So I'd encourage you to just get in touch through your Visa rep or through Elan to look at that. I also think I'll reiterate something I think all three of us have said, technology can be a way of adding to your scale and letting you focus your resources on what you do best, which is the last mile, the direct customer interaction. So, I don't think you can listen to this call and not make the case that if you're going to be in financial services, you're going to have to do, be staying current with technology. I certainly appreciate the nature of limited budgets, but at the end of the day, it's an investment that gets capitalized and keep you in the game. It allows you to succeed. And again, Matt said it really well, draw on your industry peers because what's so great about the credit union portion of the financial sector is that you all have these really unique footprints, these really unique memberships that don't really overlap. And so, unlike some of the larger banks that are all competing for that kind of on the national coverage, I think you've got a real esprit de corps that allows you to share lessons learned. And again, a lot of that'll be captured in some of the best practices I mentioned available through Visa. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Thanks, Tolan. Anything Jordan, you would add? (SPEECH – JORDAN REYNOLDS) I think Matt and Tolan summed it up well. I mean, just tap into your partners, right? I think whether it be Elan, whether it be Visa, whether it be Elavon, we're here to help. You know, we're here to offer insights and offer our perspectives on what we see in the market and offer ways to help shape and refine your strategy. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Great. Thanks Jordan. Another question came in. When thinking of security and the increase in tap-to-pay, how do you feel contactless EMB cards match up to tokenized transactions? (SPEECH – TOLAN STEELE) Well, many of them in the wallet space are tokenized, so I don't think there's a comparison to be drawn. They're one on the same. If anything, I think tokens are going to start moving beyond the wallet space into card on file that's already begun to happen and couldn't even, could even move to, into the card presence space. And I just think it's a great technology, it's now become foundational. So I don't think it's an either or drawing a contrast, I think it's a technology that's basically beginning to permeate and work its way, just like, maybe this is the nature of the question, just like we used to have Magstripe and then Chip had to come along, and again, we had to bear the investment both on the merchant side and the issuer side of getting both cards and terminals respectively able to handle the technology. I just think things like, I look at what a Square or a toast are doing on the merchant side to really, you know, provide, almost make a software as a service the way of kind of, you know, building card acceptance into the register and all the other things occurring at the register, which is no longer a register, by the way, it's an iPad or some other type of tablet, um, is just really making those kind of long duration cycles of technology replacement and compressing them quickly where they can happen. It's not like it's five years where you have to wait for another wave of point-of-sale upgrades. So again, I see it a little bit differently. I suppose I'm turning the question around. I just see tokenization as the next wave of upgrade, and again, consumers are dragging it into the reality because of the way they're interacting with the cards being less with the physical plastic, and more with digital means. So, it's just going to become more embedded. It's going to actually accelerate and ultimately in a good way in terms of how it secures the transaction. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Makes sense. Anyone else want to add anything? (SPEECH – JORDAN REYNOLDS) Yeah, the only other area I would add to is we're already seeing some of it today, so, you know, Tolan just mentioned, hey, digital wallets are all tokenized already, right? So, whether it's a - you're tapping and going with your watch on your wrist or your phone, that's already a tokenized transaction. With cards though, where we are seeing it is, you know, and it's because of, it's primarily because of security reasons, HIPAA, other rules, regulations in the U.S. market is around healthcare. So, all healthcare payments today are tokenized, right from face-to-face, you know, point-of- sale all the way through, you know, e-comm transactions. And so, we're already seeing it within certain verticals in certain sectors. And until, and I agree with you a hundred percent, you know, a, we're getting to a point where in the next couple of years, all e-comm will be tokenized, right? Whether it be card on file or just a standard e-comm transaction to, does that token kind of follow around the consumer versus I take out my card and have to tap it. It's just, it follows me around and it's part of my digital identity. I think that's the path that we're headed down over the next several years. (SPEECH – TOLAN STEELE) Yeah, let me, and let me be, uh, let me be the third speaker to bring up Paze. I'm also very involved in Paze and the work that Visa is doing to support Paze, there’s another great example of how someone might be trying to do guest checkout. And the nature of Paze is designed to recognize that the email or the phone number being inserted is a client of one of the banks in the EWS pays. Um, and to then bring in a token as the mode of supporting the payment to do so in a way that is both seamless and easily invoked, but also secure, not just the tokenization. And this is one thing we really haven't talked about, I think another thing credit unions can do is look at your customer identification and authentication methods, OTP is rapidly going to become something that's going to feel pretty historic and going to be replaced by biometrics. There's 4 billion devices if I have my account right, now in the U.S. either, the phones we're using or the computers that are shipped to us, all of which now allow for biometric either fingerprint, or face id, And I just think that's going to become more prolific as a way of identifying and authenticating the customer for purpose of a transaction. And again, it just makes it more seamless and not, or, and more secure, uh, than an OTP or something else. So that's, that's just another important development. But Paze is a great example of something. That's why we're so all in on Paze in terms of making sure it grows because it keeps the banks really directly involved in not only ensuring that security, but really engaging the merchant directly and making sure that all the data that's available is there to ensure a secure transaction. (SPEECH – MEGAN MILLER) Fantastic. And then we're four minutes to the top of the hour, so I think that will conclude our q and a session. Linda, I will kick it back to you for any last-minute comments and housekeeping. (SPEECH – LINDA LAFORTUNE) Alright, well thank you all so much. That was a lot of great information, great insights for everyone listening today.