At CBA LIVE, Visa North American President Kim Lawrence Discusses the Future of Payments

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) today continued retail banking’s premier annual event – CBA LIVE – a timely discussion between CBA President and CEO Lindsey Johnson and Visa North American President Kim Lawrence on the highly competitive credit card market and technologies that benefit consumers, such as contactless payments and other technology poised to impact the financial services industry.

In her opening remarks, Lawrence addressed breaking news released this morning regarding a historic settlement reached between Visa, Mastercard, and merchants:

“There is some big news this morning, we announced a landmark settlement between Visa and Mastercard as networks and the U.S. merchants. It provides concessions in two major areas – one is a reduction in the cap on interchange and the second is around network rules that will give merchants more control and flexibility.”

She also commented on the role of digital innovation and the impact it will have on the future of payments:

“Being digital is key. So being able to issue digitally is critical. Making sure that you're equipped to put a token in the wallet […] whether it's Apple Pay or Google Pay or any in the wallet of your consumer, being able to issue credentials wherever they want them is critical […] Being in their wallet is step one.”

On the prevalence of social media influencing consumers’ commerce decisions, Lawrence added:

“Social commerce is massive. It's here […] It's expected to be a $2 trillion total market opportunity between now and 2027. The volume is expected to double, so it's just growing at this rapid rate […] You've got all these influencers, whether they're gamers or creators, that are able to sell stuff […] We estimate about 300 million creators are influencing billions of consumers out there. And the other stat that staggering to me is 90 percent of people say that, their online shopping decisions are influenced by social media.”

Forum Discussions on Generative AI Opportunities and Challenges, Community Reinvestment Act

Outside of the General Session main stage, CBA LIVE programming has also included lively discussions across multiple Forums that focused on key issues and trends affecting the banking industry today.

One of these sessions explored the use, challenges, and regulatory complications of Gen AI in financial services with experts from the financial services, regulatory, and nonprofit sectors.

In discussing the need to ensure human redundancies are built in to guarantee compliance with relevant regulation, Loren Bushkar, an expert in innovation policy at the Federal Reserve Board, said:

“As we’re learning about this new technology, having a human there to continue to control for it is important.”

John Froese, Google Cloud Head of Banking, Google, agreed, adding:

“You need to keep a human in the loop and have a very defined approach to what you’re looking at. With data [inputs for generative AI], it’s garbage in, garbage out. It’s all about the people and the process you put in place. [Generative AI] is a tool we can apply in hundreds of use cases, so you need a roadmap of how to use them.”

A separate discussion focused on the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and featured personnel from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Fed). The panelists discussed the implementation of the rule including new requirements and evaluation metrics for banks. 

Addressing concerns from CBA and America’s leading retail banks regarding the implementation timeline and evaluation criteria, Vonda Eanes, Director, CRA and Fair Lending Policy, OCC, said:

“One of the most important things we wanted to point out is that the CRA final rule includes the legacy rules in the final rule. Until January 1, 2026, the legacy rules still apply.”

Pamela Freeman, CRA Program Manager, FDIC, addressed the expanded list of categories which qualify as community development, a key concern for successful implementation:

“We moved from four [community development] categories to eleven categories. The new categories generally build upon the current definitions of community development, and this was to provide more clarity, consistency, and certainty around the kinds of activities that are considered community development.”

Looking Ahead

Highlights for this afternoon include:

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra will speak at 12:55 p.m. EDT
• Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi and U.S. Bank’s Executive Vice President, Consumer Segments Arijit Roy will have a fireside chat at 1:35 p.m. EDT
• The Center for Generational Kinetics President Jason Dorsey and Citizens Financial Vice Chair, Head of Consumer Banking Brendan Coughlin will have a fireside chat 1:55 p.m. EDT

To view the full detailed schedule, click HERE. To view the livestream, click HERE.

Background

Entering its 15th year, CBA LIVE attracts the top leaders and influencers from across the country who gather to discuss the most pressing issues facing the retail banking industry. With more than 60 hours of dynamic programming and 16 forum sessions tailored to different bank segments, CBA LIVE offers key insights for professionals motivated to learn new trends and share ideas with the most influential decision makers in the business.