Nacha Smarter Faster Payments (to give it its full title) returned to an in-person event again after the pandemic. This year it was in Nashville - coincidentally, the only other time I’ve visited Nashville was my very last trip before the pandemic.

Before I talk about some of the takeaways, just some observations. First, and many others have said this before me, it’s so good to be back meeting in person! While the pandemic proved we can do business remotely, the event illustrated that remote ultimately is no substitute. Second, everyone came to maximise their value. Given the hoops that many had to jump through to travel, and how long it’d been since we all last met, in addition to the genuine warmth we felt reconnecting, we had great conversations across the board.

Nacha definitely helped maximise this. A very good turnout, but with many choosing to attend the virtual event instead, those who came wanted to be there. The other big change is that for the first time ever, the exhibit hall remained open the whole time, and was busy the whole time, with no detriment to the conference. I didn’t get to attend many sessions but many were so busy they had to turn people away. (Thankfully, I managed to persuade the room moderator that, as a speaker, I probably should be allowed in!)

I was lucky enough to speak on Request For Payment and ISO 20022 with Andrew Haskell from BNY Mellon and Orlando Valin from CGI. Standing room only, amongst other things we heard from Andrew about the RfP pilot they’re doing with Verizon. Our informal poll suggested that more and more banks are actively considering RfP, so it’ll be interesting to watch the progress over the coming year.

In terms of themes, while there were many, three stood out.