In This Episode Does financial services ever have an off-season? Is now the time to update your playbook? . Today, host JP Nicols tackles a few of these questions and then speaks with James Anderson, Paze's Managing Director, about a new launch on track for early next year. Paze is a new digital bank wallet from Early Warning Services, the fintech company that brought us Zelle several years ago and is owned by some of the largest banks in the US. A completely separate venture focused on e-commerce payments, Paze no doubt benefits from learnings in creating Zelle. The US payments world is complicated, Paze aims to be ubiquitous on both consumer and merchant sides, the piece in the middle connecting financial institutions, providing better outcomes, and making purchases more convenient and secure. Launching with more than 1,000 banks, Paze is 100% online payments focused, offered by participating banks and credit unions, built to simplify and secure checkout by tokenizing credit and debit card numbers so users never have to enter card data, usernames or remember passwords. A new product, a new year and the next era of banking just around the corner. Read the entire transcript here. Podcast Content: Chapter 1: [00:00] Introduction: Setting the Stage Brett King introduces the episode's focus on the evolution of digital banking and the competitive dynamics between incumbents and insurgents. Chapter 2: [05:30] The Challenges of Digital Wallets Brett and James Anderson discuss the fragmented digital wallet landscape and the persistent issues in online payments. Chapter 3: [15:20] Introducing Paze: A Bank-Led Digital Wallet James outlines the goals of Paze, a digital wallet initiative from Early Warning Services, focusing on security, convenience, and ubiquity. Chapter 4: [25:40] Learning from Zelle Insights from Zelle’s success in peer-to-peer payments and how it shapes the strategy for Paze’s rollout. Chapter 5: [35:10] Collaboration with Merchants Exploring how Paze plans to bridge the gap between financial institutions and merchants to reduce cart abandonment and enhance user experience. Chapter 6: [48:25] Tackling Fraud in E-Commerce Paze’s unique approach to fraud prevention using tokenization, cryptograms, and bank-verified data. Chapter 7: [58:15] Building Ubiquity in Payments The challenges and strategies for achieving widespread adoption among consumers, merchants, and financial institutions. Chapter 8: [01:10:50] Roadmap to 2024 Updates on the phased rollout of Paze, including pilot programs and partnerships with financial institutions. Chapter 9: [01:20:30] The Broader Vision for Banking Reflections on how innovations like Paze signify the shift toward customer-centric and secure digital banking experiences. Chapter 10: [01:30:45] Closing Remarks Brett wraps up with key takeaways on the future of digital payments and the role of collaboration in shaping the next era of banking. Related Content: Special Episode - Breaking Payments Kick-Off Episode 337: Winners and Losers in a Post-Pandemic World Episode 524: Identity Digital Wallets: Exploding Or Blowing Up? Are Mobile Wallets On The Horizon Or Somewhere Over The Rainbow? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJYx8wG_5fs