Account-to-account (A2A) payments are moving from a low-cost alternative to cards into a core strategic capability for banks, reshaping how money moves, how value is captured, and how customer relationships are owned.

This panel brings together senior bank leaders to examine how A2A payments will evolve in 2026 and beyond, and what that evolution means for revenue models, infrastructure investment, risk, and competitive positioning. The discussion will explore the shift from batch to real-time rails, the impact of open banking and API-driven payments, and how banks can move from simply providing access to delivering differentiated, monetizable A2A experiences.

Panelists will debate where banks should lead, where they should partner, and where they risk being disintermediated, particularly as fintechs, merchants, and embedded finance players increasingly sit between banks and end customers. Discussion points to include A2A as a strategic asset (not a utility); real-time payments and customer expectations; monetization and business models; open banking, APIs, and control of the customer experience; risk, fraud, and trust; the future of cross-border A2A and interoperability.

Instant payments are rapidly becoming foundational to modern banking—but access to rails like RTP and FedNow is no longer the differentiator. The real competitive advantage is shifting to orchestration. As payment flows fragment across multiple domestic and cross-border networks, banks must intelligently route transactions, manage real-time liquidity, embed fraud and identity decisioning, and deliver seamless customer experiences—all in milliseconds.

This panel brings together senior banking leaders to explore how orchestration is emerging as the control layer for instant payments. The discussion will examine how institutions are balancing speed with risk, integrating treasury and payments functions, and rethinking their technology stacks to avoid fragmentation and vendor lock-in. Panelists will also address where new value is being created—from data and premium services to AI-driven routing—and how banks can position themselves to compete in an ecosystem increasingly shaped by fintechs and real-time network operators.

At stake is a critical question: will orchestration become a core banking competency—or a commoditized layer controlled by others?

The combination of AI and blockchain is moving payments beyond faster transactions toward smarter, more autonomous systems, driven by machine learning, smart contracts, and decentralized networks that enable predictive risk management, dynamic pricing, and programmable money.

So what happens when payments systems can learn, adapt, and self-execute? This panel brings together experts in AI, blockchain, and financial services to explore how intelligent automation and trustless infrastructure are converging to redefine payments. From autonomous fraud detection to self-settling transactions, the discussion will highlight the opportunities, risks, and strategic decisions shaping the next generation of global payments.

This research examines how the relationship between banks and their issuers and processors is evolving as payments infrastructure modernization accelerates alongside increasing consolidation across the payments ecosystem and intensifying competition from non-bank players seeking bank charters.

Once viewed primarily as legacy technology or middleware – providers, issuers and processors are now fewer in number and more deeply embedded as strategic partners supporting banks’ growth, innovation, and customer experience initiatives. The study explores how this shift, influenced by a more concentrated provider landscape and the emergence of newly chartered, digital-first competitors, is shaping banks’ modernization priorities, including technology architecture, data access, flexibility, and speed to market. In doing so, it assesses how banks of different sizes are redefining expectations around service, collaboration, accountability, and long-term risk as they navigate choice, innovation, and dependency in an increasingly competitive payments environment.

As instant payments scale and embedded finance reshapes distribution, the traditional ownership of the customer payment relationship is under pressure. Networks are expanding capabilities, fintechs are owning the front-end experience, and banks risk being pushed into regulated balance sheet providers. This panel discussion considers opposing views on whether banks can reclaim control—or whether the center of gravity has already shifted. Expect a direct, unscripted debate on who captures value, who owns the customer, and whether banks can realistically compete in a world where payments are increasingly invisible.

The panel discussion will deliberate:

BNPL and embedded finance aren’t just new lending channels. They’re changing who owns the customer, who controls underwriting, and who captures the economics. As nonbanks and platforms insert themselves between banks and consumers, financial institutions face a high-stakes tradeoff: pursue scale through partnerships and risk becoming invisible, or maintain control and risk losing distribution. In this session, American Banker shares new research from U.S. banks and credit unions on how leaders are approaching BNPL and embedded finance right now, and what strategies are gaining momentum, where institutions are drawing hard lines, and which partnership models are proving viable. The research explores the regulatory and compliance friction points, the operational realities behind launching BNPL at bank-grade risk standards, and the competitive pressures forcing faster decisions. The discussion delivers a benchmark view of how banks and credit unions are navigating the tension between growth, control, and risk—and what that means for their role in the next generation of lending.

Payments are entering a new phase of transformation. As real-time networks, digital banking platforms, and programmable money reshape how value moves, artificial intelligence is beginning to move beyond automation into systems that can coordinate and act within financial operations.

This convergence is giving rise to what he describes as the Agentic Bank, where humans and intelligent AI agents work together to orchestrate payments, manage liquidity, detect risk, and deliver financial services at machine speed. In the keynote, Temsamani will explore how the intersection of payments infrastructure, AI, and digital assets is reshaping the operating model of financial institutions and redefining how value moves across the economy.