CEO
Crone Consulting LLC
Richard Crone is CEO of Crone Consulting, LLC, specializing in re-deploying heritage payment assets to support the launch of innovative use cases and new markets for legacy financial institutions, retailers and their infrastructure providers. He has been directly involved in nearly every major transformative move in payments as a vendor, fintech strategist, board member, consultant and investor. He has direct, deep and recent experience with all the major stakeholders supporting the Federal Reserve Bank’s FedNow, The Clearing House's Realtime Payments and other global instant payment schemes. His unique working knowledge has enabled repositioned use cases for instant payments using over-the-top, alternative clearing and settlement structures for Pay-By-Bank decoupled debit, electronic bill/invoice presentment & payment, A2A, P2P and the like. With over 20 years of proprietary longitudinal data through his firm’s Service Interaction Analysis™, Richard helps clients interpret trends across channels, products and customer touchpoints to drive innovation and strategic planning. He is a trusted advisor for partnerships, fintech integrations and M&A, frequently called upon by venture and private equity firms for due diligence on high-profile deals in payments and fintech. More at www.linkedin.com/in/richardcrone.
Agentic payments are emerging as the next great battleground in issuing, digital wallets and commerce. As large language models, AI shopping agents and commerce platforms move from product discovery to purchase execution, the strategic question for banks is no longer whether agentic commerce is real, but who will own the credential, the customer relationship and the attribution trail when autonomous agents begin selecting tender on behalf of consumers and businesses. What is at stake is not simply interchange. It is a new greenfield co-branded card opportunity tied to AI-native credentials, multi-account routing, tokenized identity and intent-based attribution that could redefine issuer economics and customer acquisition.
This panel brings together leaders from AI platforms, payments, fintech and digital commerce to examine how agentic payments will reshape card issuing, authentication and top-of-wallet status. The discussion will explore why LLMs and commerce platforms may pursue co-branded or proprietary payment credentials, how payment accounts become the identity vault and attribution trigger for agentic commerce, what trust and authentication layers must evolve, and why banks risk being disintermediated if they are not embedded in the next generation of agent-initiated transactions. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how agentic payments differ from broader agentic commerce, why this market may prove to be the largest co-branded card opportunity in history, and what banks, networks and fintechs must do now to remain relevant before the 2026 holiday shopping cycle locks in early winners.
As small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) navigate an increasingly complex marketplace, leveraging the power of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) offers transformative opportunities. This session will explore how banks can utilize their Banking Operating System (BOS) to empower SMBs across all verticals, creating seamless banking experiences that drive growth and efficiency. Hear the latest innovative applications of GenAI, share success stories, and outline strategies for banks to enhance their SMB offerings, ultimately reimagining commerce in a digital-first world.
Among the things you’ll learn:
The session will explore and probe the growing desire by consumers and businesses to have access to send/receive instant payments capabilities—affording them more convenience, greater control over cash flow, and faster access to funds—the monetization opportunities for the range of instant payment providers, the risks around fraud, and the compliance and technical hurdles that have to be overcome.
Among the things to be discussed: