trends in payments and what's ahead for 2016As payments technologies evolve, consumer preferences shift and competitors – including big banks – begin rolling out solutions of their own, it might be easy to toss up your hands as a credit union and ask, "How will I ever keep up?"

Fortunately, there is no "I" in the credit union movement. Only a "we." Together, we can keep pace with the ebb and flow of payments trends, in part, by leveraging our cooperative resources and events – not least of which should be CUNA's Governmental Affairs Conference.

The 2016 CUNA GAC, bringing nearly 5,000 people to Washington this week, offers several ways for credit union leaders to maintain a firm grasp on the direction of payments.

The week's schedule includes a breakout session featuring a panel of payments gurus, and ample time to meet with experts in the vendor exhibit hall. In all, CUNA GAC serves as a critical resource for credit unions to learn about where we've come from, and just where the heck we're going. Between what happened in payments in 2015 and what's on tap for this year, there's a lot to cover.

Perhaps the best way to thwart a high-profile new product is to saddle it with lofty expectations. Apple Pay has accomplished more in its first 15 months than all prior wallet launches combined. Yet uptake projections were so sky-high that it has been viewed as a major disappointment. Even more discouraging, its pace of adoption has decelerated, while existing users have been losing interest. Don't count out Apple Pay just yet, but the company has far from conquered the market.

Then there's the EMV migration. The chaos many expected to see at point-of-sale terminals following Oct. 1 never materialized. In fact, consumer chip cards were slow to arrive, merchant EMV systems were slow to be activated, and for the most part, POS delays and user confusion were relatively muted. Like Apple Pay, there will be plenty more to this story in 2016.

For Apple's competitors, the tech giant's stumble into the digital wallet game left the door to the market wide open. First to pounce was JPMorgan Chase, which unveiled Chase Pay and its partnership with merchant consortium MCX – a combination that rounds out a powerful opening position with both consumers and merchants when the product is released this year.

Both Google and Samsung retooled their wallet offerings last year as well, the latter incorporating LoopPay technology – perhaps the year's most compelling advancement. Not to be outdone, an LG Pay pilot was announced in South Korea and will likely arrive stateside in the not-too-distant future.

Disruptors, meanwhile, continue to jockey for position. Square went public and PayPal spun off from eBay, though neither has seen their stock prices surge following their respective IPOs. First Data had its long-awaited "liquidity event," but quickly sank below its IPO price, and after a disappointing earnings release this month, its stock traded at barely half its initial value. This left Worldpay the clear winner last year from an equity market standpoint, despite going public on the London exchange.

In other news, Visa stitched itself back together by re-acquiring its European arm, and Global Payments continued the consolidation in the payment processor space by acquiring Heartland.

2015 ultimately may be viewed as the year faster payments finally gained traction. The Federal Reserve's Payments Improvement initiative built momentum, and NACHA prepared for the 2016 rollout of two new same-day payment windows. But the biggest news may have come from The Clearing House, which partnered with VocaLink to bring its real-time payment system expertise from the United Kingdom to the United States.

Of course, 2016 will bring even more transformation, and the likelihood is high that what we'll be talking about a year from now hasn't even made it onto our radar yet. Stay tuned!

Glen Sarvady is senior payments expert for Best Innovation Group. He can be reached at 877-244-4964 or [email protected]

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