Disruption is rattling the payments business, and one of Los Angeles\u2019 largest banks wants in.<\/p>\n
A shift toward AI-driven intelligence and soaring demand for instant payments is shaking up the industry responsible for processing transactions from credit cards and digital wallets. To take advantage of a changing landscape, downtown-based Banc of California is nursing an emerging focus on payments with a recently launched platform and a high-level hire.<\/p>\n
In mid-February, the bank announced Chris Healy joined to head its payments division and scale its merchant acquiring platform, BancEdge, across new and existing clients.<\/p>\n
Healy brings 25 years of payments experience to the role. Since 2011, he led payments strategy at Comerica Bank, where he oversaw the restructuring of the merchant services division\u2019s delivery model. The combined company formed after Fifth Third Bancorp\u2019s acquisition of Comerica last month boasts a $1 billion recurring and high-return fee payments business.<\/p>\n
\u201cChris is a highly respected payments executive with deep industry expertise and a strong client-first mindset,\u201d said Banc of California Chief Executive Jared Wolff in a news release. \u201cHis leadership and experience will help us scale our payments offerings and deliver innovative solutions that support our clients\u2019 evolving needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Increasingly, commercial clients expect secured, real-time payments that make money available nearly instantly through 24\/7 networks like The Clearing House\u2019s RTP.<\/p>\n
AI tools are another major focus, with Stripe and other payments fintech giants developing \u201cagentic\u201d capabilities that would allow AI bots to handle payment authorization.<\/p>\n
Seismic shift in payments<\/p>\n
Banc of California is \u201ccommitted to its investment in payments,\u201d and it\u2019s keeping a pulse on trends in the field, Healy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s never been a more exciting time to be in payments,\u201d he said. \u201cThe innovation just continues to evolve, and there are new ways for customers to conduct commerce. I see new business models on a regular basis. I see new payment channels.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evolving client needs are driving consolidation and seismic shifts in the payments industry. Block, the company behind online payment platforms Square and Cash App, cut 4,000 employees on Feb. 27 \u2014 nearly half of its workforce \u2014 citing a reconfiguration around AI. Just two days prior, Bloomberg News reported that Stripe is considering acquiring PayPal, fresh off a $159 billion valuation announcement.<\/p>\n
For Banc of California, offering a consultative approach comes first to the underlying technology, and capitalizing on the shifting payments ecosystem is a key strategy, Healy said. His primary task will be to scale the existing BancEdge platform to a broad range of commercial clients.<\/p>\n
Last month, Wolff told the Business Journal that the bank hopes its payments platform offering \u2014 with its direct, bank-led approach and same-day account funding \u2014 will entice businesses currently using non-bank payments platforms.<\/p>\n
Banc of California also sees payments as key to its efforts to boost deposits amid a competitive\u00a0deposits market, Healy said. An S&P<\/p>\n
Global Market Intelligence study found the majority of U.S. bankers expect even tighter competition for client dollars in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cMerchant acquiring is a great way to create stickiness with operational accounts and accelerate those deposits,\u201d he said. \u201cCustomers are increasingly making decisions for reasons that banks might not have always considered their primary focus.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disruption is rattling the payments business, and one of Los Angeles\u2019 largest banks wants in. A shift toward…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14847,7,9,8],"class_list":["post-211371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-banc-of-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}