Head of Merchant Business Banking
Elavon
As head of merchant, business banking at U.S. Bank and Elavon, Jordan Owen leads a team of 200+, who drive merchant success within business banking at Elavon. With a remarkable track record of driving innovation in the payments space, both at bank-backed institutions and private equity-funded fintech companies, Jordan has dedicated her career to championing excellence in merchant solutions, cultivating strong relationships with industry partners, delivering results and solutions that optimize customer experience, efficiency, and profitability. She mentors women from different backgrounds and initiated a program to help prospective employees enhance their job applications. Jordan holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Durham University in England and completed postgraduate coursework at the London School of Economics.
Many small business owners use a variety of software to run their operations, often leading to a collection of unconnected tools that increase administrative work and costs. As a result, there's growing demand for bundled, all-in-one solutions that simplify processes and help save time and money. Jordan can discuss which types of SMBs typically seek out these solutions—often those in the micro segment—what our data reveals about these businesses, and how adopting such solutions leads to greater success.
Real-time payments are expected to generate $173 billion in additional economic output this year, according to the Center for Economic and Business Research. Cross-border payments are entering their “real-time era”—and in 2026 the biggest opportunity for banks is to evolve from slow, fee-driven intermediaries into 24/7 liquidity, settlement, and compliance hubs. This panel explores how banks can capture new revenue and deepen client relationships by delivering instant cross-border settlement, richer data, and embedded treasury capabilities—while maintaining trust, control, and regulatory-grade risk management.
The panelists will debate where banks can lead versus where they will be disintermediated, and which technologies will determine who wins the next generation of global payments. Key to this: Interoperability infrastructure—the combination of ISO 20022 + APIs + real-time compliance automation, increasingly paired with tokenized settlement rails, including stablecoins and blockchain-based networks. The discussion will include: