As 2026 approaches, instant payments are entering a new phase of maturity. Financial institutions are shifting from “instant vs. not instant” to understanding where instant provides the most value, which use cases are accelerating adoption, how Request for Pay is expanding, and what new fraud patterns are emerging as real-time activity grows.
In this American Banker–hosted webinar on Thursday, January 28, at 2:00 ET, join Erika Baumann from Datos Insights, along with Alacriti payments leaders Neeraj Gupta, Stuart Bain, and Mark Majeske as they explore the latest insights, market trends, and strategic opportunities shaping instant payments in 2026.
Topics will include:
- What’s driving FI urgency in 2026
- Emerging instant-payments fraud trends and evolving controls
- Network/rail updates shaping strategy, including stablecoin
- Request for Pay momentum and adoption patterns
- Instant payouts and account funding: where volume is growing and why
Whether you’re planning for roadmap alignment, operational adoption, or revenue expansion, this session will help clarify where the market is really moving—and what FIs should be preparing for next.
Our Speakers
Director, Commercial Banking & Payments Practice, Datos Insights
Erika Baumann serves as Director of Datos Insights’ Commercial Banking & Payments practice, focusing on payables and receivables technology and solutions. She has over 10 years of experience in the wholesale banking space, bringing expertise from both banking and fintech vendor positions. She has worked extensively with both U.S. and international banks, vendors, and the clients of each to identify market opportunities and implement technology solutions.
Erika Baumann
SVP of Product Management, Alacriti
Stuart is responsible for the Product Management division at Alacriti. He works with business development and sales teams to define Alacriti’s payment processing product roadmap, provide analysis for new products, and enhance existing products.
Prior to joining Alacriti, he led several teams responsible for the development and support of multiple payment-related applications at HSBC Bank. Stuart holds a BSc degree in Geological Sciences from St. John’s College, UK, and a second BSc in Financial Services from UMIST, UK.
Stuart Bain
SVP of Product Management
Neeraj has been in and around payments throughout his 20+ year career. He’s building on that as a new addition to the team at Alacriti, where he’s responsible for product strategy and commercialization. Before joining Alacriti, he served in product leadership roles for FIS and Worldpay, where he drove high-growth solutions that enabled large enterprises to automate and optimize B2C and B2B payments acceptance and minimize payment fraud. He holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and a BS in Computer Science from the University of Virginia.
Neeraj Gupta
SVP Faster Payments, Alacriti
As Senior Vice President of Faster Payments at Alacriti, Mark leads the overall corporate faster payments strategy and product development of the Orbipay Payments Hub. Mark also currently serves in the Faster Payments Council Board Advisory Group. Previously, Mark led product development for the RTP® network, the FedNow® Service, and Zelle® at FIS. In addition, Mark was part of the team that designed, developed, and launched the RTP network at The Clearing House. He also worked in digital payments product development at JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citibank, SunTrust Banks (now Truist Financial Corporation), and TD Bank.
