Session Description:

Faster payments are beginning to become top of mind for financial institutions and the fintechs that support them, but many questions remain unanswered. The U.S. Faster Payments Council and its members will host a diverse group of experts to help build an understanding of what this new payment type is, how it can be adopted and used, and why it represents a sea change for payments and financial services in the United States.

Speaker(s):

David Dwumah CPA, CISA, OurBanc Corporation

David is the Founder and CEO of OurBanc; a FinTech whose mission is to do its part to reduce the racial wealth gap by channeling the transformative power of purpose, community, and innovative technologies, to provide more equitable, sustainable, and inclusive financial products and services. 

Growing up in Ghana, David had always been intrigued by Susu, an informal community-based savings practice that enables family and friends with limited or no access to formal banking services to come together to borrow and lend money to each other.

David founded OurBanc based on his personal experiences and to leverage his cross-functional expertise working across banking, finance, technology, and risk industries. Prior to OurBanc, David spent over fifteen years working at Citizens Bank, the Boston Federal Reserve, and EY’s Financial Services practice. He is a Steward of the Council for Inclusive Capitalism (the Council) and is a member of the U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC) Financial Inclusion Workgroup and ESG Subgroup.  

David loves all things BBQ! David earned his Master’s in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame, and a Master of Science in Information Systems from Baylor University. He has a Bachelor’s in Finance from the University of North Florida, with the highest honors and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Elspeth Bloodgood, Jack Henry

Elspeth Bloodgood, AAP, NCP is a senior product manager for Jack Henry’s JHA PayCenter and a subject matter expert in the Zelle, FedNow, and RTP networks. She has been in the payment industry for the better part of 20 years, starting with a stint on the x9B committee that created the IRD standard for Check 21. She has been a frequent work group member for NACHA, the Faster Payments Council and its predecessors, and other cross industry groups. She has experience in online BillPay for the iPay Division of Jack Henry. Prior to that, she was in product management for biller direct and ACH products at multiple companies.

Reed Luhtanen, Faster Payments Council

Reed Luhtanen is Executive Director of the U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC). The FPC is an industry-led membership organization whose mission is to facilitate a world-class payment system where Americans can safely and securely pay anyone, anywhere, at any time and with near-immediate funds availability. Reed is responsible for managing the daily operations of the organization and working with the FPC board and membership to execute on the FPC’s strategic plan while ensuring inclusive and transparent dialogue with all FPC stakeholders. FPC members include business end-users, consumer organizations, financial institutions, payment network operators, technology providers, and others.

Reed has extensive experience in the payments industry and has served on myriad industry bodies, most recently an officer on the FPC Board of Directors; the Federal Reserve-sponsored Governance Framework Formation Team, which created the U.S. Faster Payments Council; and the Corporate Advisory Group for The Clearing House’s Real-Time Payments System. Prior to joining the FPC, he spent 15 years at Walmart, departing as senior director of global treasury, where he was responsible for the company’s payments-related public policy and public relations initiatives, network and processor relationships, and establishing Walmart’s payments acceptance strategies.

In 2015, Reed was recognized as one of PayBefore’s “Top Ten Payments Lawyers” and The Electronic Transactions Association honored him as a member of its “Forty Under 40” class in 2019. He has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Arkansas’ Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and a J.D. from the University of Arkansas School of Law.

He is based in Bentonville, AR.

Dan Akivis, Cross River