New payment tech makes headlines almost daily, yet many organizations still struggle to separate what’s interesting from what’s actionable. That challenge framed PNC Treasury Management’s recent webinar, Reimagining Payments for Modern Operations, which explored how businesses are navigating today’s increasingly complex payments landscape.
Moderated by Sarah Billings, PNC’s Head of Global Payments, the discussion featured Doug Carlson, Head of Payments Product Management, and Jim Douglas, Head of Emerging Payments. Together, they dug into key payment trends, the use cases driving adoption, and why the best strategies blend proven rails with what’s next.
Understanding Today’s Payments “Supermarket”
“I like to think of payments today less like a single aisle and more like a full supermarket,” Billings said, noting that while organizations once relied on a relatively narrow set of familiar options – ACH, wire, checks, cards, and cash – today’s environment offers far more choice and complexity.
Carlson echoed that sentiment, adding that businesses now have access to a range of options, including multiple varieties of instant payments, stablecoins and digital assets, all which can be accessed through APIs in addition to traditional online or file channels. To simplify all these choices, PNC offers services like ePayments for business to consumer payments when speed and consumer choice is key or intelligent routing to optimize payment selection balancing speed, cost, and reach.
“The advantage isn’t more choice, it’s choosing well and strategically combining them to meet specific business needs,” he said.
Payment Trends Reflect Shifting Demand
Carlson expanded on this shift by highlighting how demand for faster and more flexible payment options continues to grow. He pointed to ongoing ACH expansion and significant growth in person‑to‑person and business‑to‑consumer payments. The Zelle® network, for example, reached $1.2 trillion in payment value in 2025, reflecting a nearly 20% growth year-over-year.[1]
Rather than replacing legacy methods, newer options are being layered in, boosting speed, convenience, and reliability where it matters most.
Making Payment Innovation Work in the Real World
The panelists shared examples of how PNC’s clients are putting modern payment tools to work:
- A large healthcare provider reduced reimbursement delays and reconciliation issues by moving away from paper checks and adopting ePayments, a B2C payee choice service allowing patients to choose how they receive funds.
- A regional insurance provider used Zelle® to deliver approved claims directly to customers’ bank accounts within minutes, meeting rising expectations for immediacy.
- A retail point‑of‑sale business replaced cash‑based buy‑backs with direct‑to‑debit‑card payouts, offering an immediate solution that met operational and customer needs.
- A financial services company streamlined time‑sensitive payments by using intelligent routing to automatically select the fastest eligible payment rail, without added operational complexity.
Immediate Payments: Balancing Speed, Scale, and Risk
Douglas addressed the rapid adoption of instant payments, describing the growth as exponential. In Q1 2026 alone, real‑time payments totaled 128 million transactions and $480 billion in value, with daily RTP value reaching $5.7 billion in March.[2]
But speed isn’t the whole story. Douglas stressed that certainty, automation, and better data are what turn instant payments into a strategic capability. “More than half of businesses now send at least one real time payment,” he noted, evidence these rails are quickly becoming part of daily operations.
The faster money moves, the more risk controls must keep up. The panel underscored embedded fraud protection, credit push models and automated, API-driven, workflows that help manage risk while improving efficiency.
ISO 20022 and What’s Next in Payments
The panel also looked ahead to the data standards shaping what’s next. Douglas compared the industry’s shift toward ISO 20022 to the broader evolution from UPC bar codes to QR codes – both enabling richer, more structured data. ISO 20022 aims to create a global standard that supports more consistent, granular information across payment types. As payments become faster and more interconnected, structured data is becoming just as important as speed.
Looking ahead, Douglas discussed the growing role of stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency designed to keep a stable value and typically backed by the U.S. dollar. Stablecoin payment volume has grown sharply, with B2B transactions showing especially strong momentum. He also described how stablecoins may intersect with artificial intelligence, enabling automated, agent‑driven payment decisions.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Billings closed by offering three practical considerations for organizations evaluating new payment technologies:
- Options for transforming current challenges: With so many new capabilities, organizations don’t need to accept long‑standing pain points. Challenges that once felt baked into the business can be addressed with solutions that didn’t exist even a year or two ago, making this an important moment to reevaluate available options.
- Different use cases benefit from different payment tools: Payments should be approached like tools in a toolbox – designed for specific jobs rather than as a one‑size‑fits‑all solution.
- Consider lower-tech options to ease adoption: Not every organization has access to deep IT resources or teams fluent in the latest technologies, but that shouldn’t be a barrier to progress. There are simple, easy‑to‑adopt solutions that can help organizations get started and enable adoption of new payment capabilities regardless of technical sophistication.
The message was clear: the organizations pulling ahead are treating payments as a strategic capability, improving experiences, streamlining operations, and staying ready for whatever comes next.
