In Q1 2026, NEACH met with leading third-party providers to explore the latest trends and developments in the payments landscape. Mihail Duta, Head of the Global Solution Consulting Team for Payments in the Americas at Finastra, shared valuable insights on the evolving nature of payments and what to expect in the year ahead. What follows is a summary of our conversation.
NEACH: What do you see as the next major shift in payments that banks and credit unions should watch for in 2026? Why?
Duta: We are seeing significant changes in payments, but I believe several will move to the forefront in 2026.
In July 2025, the Fedwire Funds Service implemented ISO 20022, the new global messaging standard that replaced the Fedwire Application Interface Manual (FAIM). I was on a call with the Federal Reserve not long ago, where they discussed upcoming changes they plan to implement in November 2026. The major change will be the mandatory use of hybrid postal addresses, which will require adding the town and country.
The second shift involves instant payments. In the U.S., there are two payment rails—the Real Time Payments (RTP®) rail and the FedNow® Service. The majority of transactions for both rails are receive-only. In 2026, I believe we will see a switch towards enabling send, attracting more participants to both rails.
Additionally, stablecoins are gaining traction, and I think it won’t be long before we start hearing about stablecoin payments. Customers will expect their institutions, regardless of size, to offer that option.
Finally, artificial intelligence (AI) will continue to shape the payments landscape. I believe we'll see AI in payment processing and decision-making in the year ahead.
NEACH: The competitive landscape for FIs continues to evolve. How can your customers “win” in today’s banking environment? What role do payments play in that strategy?
Duta: Payments are moving at an incredible speed. For instance, we had an executive order signed in March for the government to stop issuing paper checks, which took effect at the end of September. In the past, we would have never made such a major decision this fast. To that point, I believe that changes in the payments space will continue to happen quickly in 2026. For financial institutions (FIs) to stay competitive in today’s banking landscape, the ability to adapt and respond to rapid changes will be essential for success.
To that end, it is essential for financial institutions to adopt a modern solution. They need to be able to offer their customers and members options regarding what we call rails. Customers/members might not explicitly ask for instant payments, ACH transfer, or Fedwire when they walk into a financial institution, but they will typically say that they want something very fast or inexpensive. So being able to offer customers/members those options is essential. And that means, behind the scenes, you need a payment hub to enable it. It’s about accommodating and supporting multiple rails within a single system to give customers/members both speed and choice. Because if you’re not providing a solution, most likely your competitor down the street is. And guess what’s going to happen? You’re going to start losing customers/members and will have a hard time attracting new ones.
NEACH: Shifting gears, how is all this innovation increasing the sophistication of the fraud landscape? What are you recommending to your clients to help them stay ahead as things continue to move so quickly?
Duta: Well, certainly when it comes to fraud, especially in the instant payments space, there’s a lot of concern, although the data doesn’t support it. I was just on a call with The Clearing House the other day, and they shared some stats on fraud in the RTP world, and it’s extremely low, as is the case with FedNow. Especially by comparison to other rails. Still, it’s important that financial institutions partner with best-in-class providers of fraud mitigation. At Finastra, for example, we provide our customers and prospects with a list of certified providers and encourage them to select the one that best meets their needs. It is imperative for FIs to perform due diligence on fraud and compliance to ensure that everything is captured, scanned, and analyzed before the payment leaves the bank.
We are seeing many of our partners leveraging AI in the fraud and compliance spaces to scan and analyze data and prioritize scenarios for operations to review. In fact, at another conference, the CEO of a large New York-based FI used the term “digital employee.” These digital employees are essentially agentic AI, and in their case, they used them to review code written by their developers. They are also using digital employees to develop and review code.
NEACH: What recent or forthcoming product rollouts do you have that FIs should explore?
Duta: In the mid-market space, we offer our regional payment hub solution, "Payments to Go." Speed matters when we discuss introducing and implementing our solution with customers and prospects. They want to know how quickly they can go live and enable FedNow. To address this, we've launched our onboarding tool and preconfigured application, "Payments to Go," to deploy our solution quickly. This enables financial institutions to benefit from our product, which is exactly what they need. Additionally, customers want a product with enough out-of-the-box features. They don't want a custom version; they want the core product to meet their needs effectively.
To accomplish this, we emphasize configuration over customization. Our proprietary capabilities, including our business rule engine, offer configuration options that our customers value. This enables our customers to tailor the system to their needs through configuration, without requiring extensive customization. This is the biggest need we observe in the market.
We also offer an enterprise solution, our Global Pay Plus payment hub, which is designed for large financial institutions. Even there, we see that they prefer something standard. However, the configuration level is somewhat more expensive because of the increased complexity.
NEACH: Certainly, there is no shortage of change in the payments space, and you’ve covered many key topics already. However, with things continuing to evolve so rapidly, what advice do you have for financial institutions as they navigate 2026?
Duta: Financial institutions need to be proactive and prepared to address emerging needs instead of waiting for customers to request solutions like FedNow. It's vital to have these solutions in place beforehand. My advice to FIs is to act proactively and avoid delays. With so many payment changes on the horizon, having the right modern solution is essential. FIs can't afford to wait for customer requests and then respond; they need to anticipate. But not all FIs have adopted this mindset yet. For example, some FIs might say nobody is asking about FedNow, but similarly, nobody specifically asked for ACH, yet it has been processed for many years.
Change in the payments space is happening at an unprecedented rate. It’s important to remember that solutions are available to help you address the unique challenges your FI faces and the needs of your customers and members.
Mihail Duta, Director, Head, Global Solutions Consultant, Payments, Finastra
Throughout his tenure with Finastra’s payments solutions, Mihail has developed strong, enduring client relationships. Today, he interacts directly with customers through his current role and as a liaison to Finastra’s U.S. payment wires and ACH user boards. Mihail is also the main point of contact between Finastra and the Federal Reserve Bank.