ETA Hosts Payments University on Capitol Hill

March 20, 2015 – ETA hosted an educational payments event at the U.S. Capitol yesterday. Entitled ETA University (ETA-U), the day-long event convened leaders in the payments technology industry to educate nearly 100 staff from Capitol Hill, regulators, law enforcement,  and other trade associations, on the fundamentals of the payments industry that drives $5 trillion dollars in transactions annually.   ETA-U is part of ETA’s on-going educational efforts for policymakers.

ETAU-attendees were able to increase their working knowledge of the complex payments ecosystem through a day of education including sessions on prepaid, Bitcoin, new security technologies and data-breach preparedness.

In addition, the newly formed bipartisan Congressional Payments Technology Caucus (CPTC) was announced at the beginning of ETAU.  Formed by Representatives Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), Randy Neugebauer (R-TX), David Scott (D-GA), and Kyrsten Sinema (D-A), the mission of the CPTC is to explore the new and innovative technologies in the payments industry, as well as answer questions about prepaid cards, securing consumer data and transactions, the latest technology, unbanked users’ access to electronic payments, and more. The CPTC founding leaders all serve on the House Financial Services Committee and have expressed interest in increasing public understanding of consumer protection through electronic payments.

ETA’s CEO Jason Oxman, who chaired the ETA-U event and announcement said, “This new caucus is important for the payments industry, American consumers and our economy. As the trade association of more than 500 U.S. payments technology companies, ETA applauds the leadership of Representatives Westmoreland, Scott, Neugebauer, and Sinema and looks forward to working with caucus members to advance deployment of payments technologies that grow our economy while improving the lives of all Americans.”

Scott Talbott, ETA Senior VP of Government Affairs, said, “We are excited about the new Payments Technology Caucus. ‎ It captures what ETA members are all about- combining payments and technology to ensure easy, quick, reliable, and safe purchases. We plan to work closely with CPTC leaders to focus on issues facing our industry.”

Read more about the bipartisan Congressional Payments Technology Caucus here: http://westmoreland.house.gov/press-releases/house-members-announce-new-congressional-payments-technology-caucus/.

Speaker Presentation Links:

Deana Rich, President, Rich Consulting and

Ed Marshall, Partner, Arnall Golden Greggory can be found here.

Lisa Henken, Vice President, Customer Experience, NetSpend, a TSYS Company can be found here.

Wendy Lewis, Senior Director, Regulatory and Government Affairs, Blackhawk   Network can be found here.

Bob Skida, EVP of Government Affairs, InComm can be found here.

John McDonnell, CEO, Bitnet can be found here.

Matt Ozart, Vice President for Mercury Vantiv Company can be found here.