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  5. From Puppies to Payments to Partners: Perspectives from the 2023 AFP Annual Conference

From Puppies to Payments to Partners: Perspectives from the 2023 AFP Annual Conference

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5 November 2023
Patricia Hines

The AFP conference, hosted annually by the Association for Financial Professionals, marked the end of my fall conference season. As one of my favorite events, it brings together treasury and finance practitioners, financial institutions, and solution providers. Its value cannot be overstated, as demonstrated by the AFP Insider Board detailing my conference attendance over the years (which, admittedly, made me feel a bit nostalgic).

So, it’s been 20 years since my first AFP conference – what stood out? Firstly, I was surprised to encounter Citi’s AFP advertising embedded in my Uber app at the San Diego airport. This clever marketing tactic effectively showcased Citi's payments expertise and valued client relationship with Uber. Uber’s seamless payment journey is undeniably a critical factor in the company's success.

In the realm of payment developments, our discussions with North American banks and solution providers revealed lukewarm sentiments towards the upcoming ISO 20022 migration. Instead, their focus lies in prioritizing embedded finance and banking data in ERP and TMS systems, combating payments fraud with pre-validation measures, and providing payment choice for B2C transactions.

Marrying payments and partners, U.S. Bank announced its Connected Partnership Network, an online marketplace featuring pre-integrated third-party payment and treasury solutions. We’ve begun to see a handful of banks take this approach, which includes a rigorous onboarding and screening process by product managers, legal, compliance, and marketing teams. The goal is to ensure that the partner and their solution deliver tangible value to U.S. Bank clients and prospects.

In the broader partner ecosystem, recent failures by fintechs, including regulatory actions, have banks rethinking their partnership models. To help improve collaboration, we predict that banks will continue to invest capital into key fintech partners, as Citi recently did with its seed funding for the cash flow management platform Statement.io

And now, for a delightful tangent: Fidelity Investments sponsored the AFP Puppy Park, where conference attendees could spend time with adorable puppies from a local shelter. Whenever possible, I strategically scheduled meetings near the Puppy Park, as the sight of those fur balls never failed to bring a smile to my face.