More than 2,000 bankers, creditunions executives and vendors crowded into meeting rooms at aMarriott conference center in Orlando this week for NACHA'sPayments 2014 Conference.

And because they did, they know things you don't.

Big ideas were ventilated. Big worries were revealed. Bigthreats were discussed.

Tomorrow's banking will be radically different from today's. Andthat's despite the fact that, as a breed, financial servicesexecutives are risk averse and change resistant, traits noted bymultiple speakers.

However, the forces of change are coming down the pike with somuch velocity, they will come to pass.

Sooner than most in financial services believe.

Read on to catch the flavor of some of the liveliestdiscussions, exploring hot button topics such as MRDC,MCX, and BLE.

And if you don't know those acronyms, you soon will.

Read more: Non-bank innovators are leading the way…

1. The disruptors arewinning.

“Non-bank innovators are setting the payments agenda,” declaredMargaret Weichert, principal, financial services, Ernst &Young. “The payments landscape is no longer dominated bytraditional financial services players.”

Banks and credit unions may think they are driving the bus, butthe reality is otherwise.

PayPal, Amazon, Google, almost certainly Apple “are taking thehigh value, customer facing focus,” Weichert said.

A bank or credit union may fulfill a PayPal payment, but that isday labor; the real value – the customer mindshare – is wonby PayPal, she said.

At a different panel, Kevin Connelly, a vice president at FortWorth, Texas-based consulting firm The RWC Group, pointedly askedthe audience where the payments revolution is centered.

If you answered Manhattan, Charlotte, N.C. or London, you arewrong.

“It's center is Silicon Valley,” Connelly said. “The disruptorsare winning.”

He added that the big financial services brands areconspicuously absent from leadership roles in paymentsinnovation.

On a third panel, Uma Wilson, a senior vice president at UMBBank, a $16 billion institution headquartered in Kansas City, Mo.,said, “To innovate we need to look outside the industry. So oftenwe look at the bank across the street. We need to be looking atwhat the non-banks are doing.”

Are the traditional players doomed to be outsiders?

Not necessarily. Multiple speakers insisted that banks andcredit unions continue to have the trust of consumers, and that isbig where money is involved.

Financial institutions can still claim a seat at this table, butthe time to act is now, warned several NACHA panelists.

Read more: The consumer experience…

2. It's all about the consumerexperience.

Why are traditional financial services players lagging?

Gary Greenwald, managing director, digital money services atCitibank, said on another panel that it comes down to this:Non-banks like Facebook and PayPal are obsessed with delivering acaptivating consumer experience, a concept that's alien totraditional financial service executives.

Banks, added Celent analyst Jacob Jegher on the same panel, are a slow moving ship.

But consumer expectations, especially for the mobile channel,are vaulting skyward because consumers are consistently delightedby ever more engaging and imaginative apps.

“These consumer experiences set our expectations very high,”Greenwald said.

Can consumers be passionate about a banking app?

Greenwald indicated many are passionate about other kinds ofapps, so that should be a goal for developers of bank apps. Eventhough, he admitted, few think in that vein.

Attitude adjustments may be needed for long-term survival..

Read more: A lurking security threat…

3. MRDC May Be Springing aSecurity Leak

An article of faith among proponents of mobile remote depositcapture is that fraud incidence via double deposits is trivial,that the problem is minor.

Brian Todd, a senior vice president at Citibank, offered aradically different and disturbing outlook at a sparsely attendedpanel in NACHA's closing hour.

MRDC fraud, perpetrated by professionals, is rapidly rising,Todd said. And, according to him, prevailing banking rules andregulations are not set up to deal with this. That is complicatingthe search for solutions.

Todd elaborated that these professionals now are depositing thesame item, many times, at many different institutions. Followingthe bouncing check is becoming very difficult.

He predicted there will be more criminal interest in MRDC in themonths ahead, and financial institutions are struggling to fightback.

Read more: The Wal-Mart threat …

4. MCXRising

MCX is the single biggest threat to the current bank paymentssystem, pronounced panelist Paul Amisano, vice president, moneymovement and emerging payments at BB&T, a $182 billion bankheadquartered In Winston-Salem, N.C.

His point was if the Merchant Customer Exchange in fact takesoff, and if this Wal-Mart led initiative decides to go with aprepaid card, that could result in a massive restructuring ofpayments and a huge loss of fee income to banks and creditunions.

Even if MCX uses traditional credit and debit cards, there isevery indication the intent is to squeeze fees downward.

Earlier, on a different panel, consultant Weichert had rattled asimilar sabre.

“MCX is a response to bank control of the payments experience,”she said. “Merchants want to control the experience. That'swhy they are building their own thing.”

Can MCX work? The initiative involves several retailers that arefierce Wal-Mart competitors. The stability of that alliance isunclear.

What is clear is that there has not been a threat of thismagnitude to the Mastercard and Visa payments hegemony in years.Maybe never before.

Read more: Near Field, long shot?

5. Eyes on low energyBluetooth.

Just about every panelist at the NACHA conference was, at most,ambivalent about the prospects of Near Field Communication poweringthe coming mobile point of sale revolution.

Pervasive merchant resistance to upgrading terminals so theyaccept NFC tap and pay is probably the biggest reason forskepticism.

Some speakers pointed to comparatively low-tech barcodes asmobile point of sale winners, with Exhibit A being the Starbucksmobile app, widely cited as the most successful mobile commerce appin current use.

But at least one speaker, Kevin Connelly from the RWC Group,fingered low energy Bluetooth as the technology to watch. Hesaid that both Apple and PayPal, two of the dominant players inmobile payments, are deep into BLE pilots, and early word onresults is positive.

Bluetooth works, it is supported by many, many devices. And,importantly, unlike traditional Bluetooth, BLE is designed toconsume low amounts of power.

Traditional Bluetooth, when used to connect a wireless headset,for instance, notoriously drained battery life in short hours.

Not so with BLE.

Add up its availability, ease of use and low energy use and,Connelly said, this just may be the dark horse that wins theemerging mobile payments sweepstakes.

At the very least, it's a technology to watch.