Attendees of the December meeting of the Dallas Multi-Discipline Group heard from guest speaker Matt Davies, an Assistant Vice President in community outreach department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and a cybersecurity and payments expert. Davies told the group that there are two areas of emphasis in regard to payments: speed and security. “In the payment system of the future, I expect you’ll see a credit-push system. Instead of someone coming in to debit your account, you’ll be much more prone to say OK we’ll push that payment out to you. … With newer platforms, you’ll be able to send a zero-dollar transaction requesting that a payment partner pay you.” That partner will be able to simply respond to that message and push the payment to you.

In terms of cybersecurity, Davies cautioned that hackers are becoming more sophisticated. Instead of simply stealing credit-card data and making immediate purchases, they’re now taking a longer-term, higher-payout approach. They’ll infiltrate email accounts and learn the habits, language, and schedules of CEOs or CFOs before sending out a spoof email requesting funds. As such, the request seems legitimate to the recipient. They’ll also collect healthcare and credit bureau data, build profiles and synthetic identities, perhaps take out a mortgage and pay it for a few years to build up a high credit score, then rack up considerable debt before abandoning the phony identity.