ETA Strategic Leadership Forum Sets New Attendance Record

Event Highlights Include Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation Epay Innovation Award and Expert Keynote Speakers

WASHINGTON, DC (Oct. 17, 2013) ─ The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA), the trade association of the global electronic payments industry, wraps up its annual Strategic Leadership Forum (SLF) today in Scottsdale, Arizona. Among many highlights, this year’s event, the largest in ETA history, featured expert keynote speakers and the announcement of the winner of the second ePay Innovation Award.

“We are thrilled with the success of this year’s Strategic Leadership Forum,” said Jason Oxman, CEO of ETA. “ETA gathered leaders from across the payments industry to network and collaborate about engagement efforts with policy makers and business opportunities in an industry that is constantly changing.”

This year’s SLF event featured three keynote speakers with a broad range of experience in the electronic payments industry: Robert Carr, who is chairman and CEO of Heartland Payments Systems; Janine Firpo, deputy director of digital financial services at Scale, Financial Services for the Poor at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and Ed Labry, vice chairman of First Data.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced of the winner of ETA’s $10,000 ePay Innovation Award, which recognizes a start-up with the most potential to make a positive impact on unserved and underserved communities. The winner, Money2Ethiopia, provides an economical and secure platform that allows customers to send money to Ethopia.

Looking ahead, ETA is gearing up for the ETA Show 2014, the global event for payments and technology, to be held at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, April 8 – 10, 2014. The event will bring together thousands of payments professionals to experience the next generation in payments.

For media inquiries, contact Meghan Cieslak, 202.677.7406 or [email protected].