Afinis Interoperability Standards Names Inaugural Board of Directors and Officers
HERNDON, Va. (PRWEB) April 23, 2019 -- Afinis Interoperability Standards, a new member-led organization supported by NACHA, announced its inaugural Board of Directors and Board Officers. The Board of 10 members and three officers will guide the strategic direction of the organization, which is advancing financial industry standards, including API standardization and other financial services standards, across the U.S. and globally.
“This Board of Directors announcement serves as a major milestone for Afinis Interoperability Standards in its transition from a work group under NACHA’s Payments Innovation Alliance to the formal member-led organization that it is today,” said Jane Larimer, chief operating officer of NACHA. “With the formal Board now in place, Afinis is primed to continue the intelligent innovation and thoughtful collaboration in an even more informed and strategic manner.”
The new Board of Directors was selected from Interim Board of Director members,announced in December of 2018, and other Afinis Interoperability Standards members. It consists of individuals from large and small financial institutions, fintechs, software/solution providers, and businesses – a representative mix of the financial services stakeholders that will be able to develop and evolve a technical environment that is responsive to the needs of its members and the larger financial services ecosystem. Specifically, the Board includes:
• Jay Como, Chief Data Officer, Barclays, Afinis Chairperson
• Orlando Santos, VP, Product Strategy and Innovation, Payrailz, LLC, Afinis Vice Chairperson
• Murray Heldon, Chief Solution Architect, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Afinis Secretary
• George Throckmorton, Executive Director, Afinis Interoperability Standards
• Frederique Slevin, Senior Principal Product Manager, ACI Worldwide
• Alex Yang, Director, Global Head of API Strategy and Enablement, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
• Vivek Vijayakumar, SVP, Manager of Business and Application Architecture, BB&T Corporation
• Roy Taylor, VP and Chief Architect, Commerce Bank
• Christina McGeorge, VP, Solutions Consulting & Product Marketing, D3 Technology, Inc.
• David Chance, VP, Product Strategy & Innovation, Fiserv
• Anita Brady, Vice President, Oracle Corporation
• Neelesh Prabhu, SVP, Director of Application Development and Delivery, TD Bank
• Mark Schaffer, Vice President, Systems Architect, Wells Fargo
Launched in September 2018, Afinis Interoperability Standards brings diverse collaborators together in a pure digital form to build and test solutions, develop implementable and portable standards, and provide thought leadership on the shared goals of advancing efficiency, surety and security, and interoperability for financial services. The launch of the organization formalized the two-year work effort of the Payments Innovation Alliance’s API Standardization Industry Group (ASIG) and incorporates prior work of the IFX Forum.
Afinis membership is open to all organizations interested in the development of API standardization, regardless of size, type or location of the company. Presently, member organizations, with support from the Board, are furthering work on advancing use of the recently released API use cases and those set for release later this year. These include:
• Account Validation: helps ensure bank accounts are valid and payments are posted as desired.
• Get Bank Contact Information: allows originating financial institutions to quickly find and alert the appropriate contact within a receiving financial institution of potential fraud to prompt further investigation.
• Get Transaction Status: allows an Originator of a transaction to check the status of a submitted payment instruction.
• B2B Payments Interoperability: allows a company to obtain correct payment information and remittance requirements to pay another company.
• Initiate Payment: allows businesses to submit payment instructions and track scheduling without having to access multiple systems.
To learn more about Afinis Interoperability Standards and to impact its initiatives by becoming a member, visit http://www.afinis.org.
About Afinis Interoperability Standards
Afinis is a membership-based governance organization supported by NACHA that brings together diverse collaborators – through innovative and agile processes – to develop implementable, interoperable, and portable financial services standards across operating environments and platforms. Afinis brings together thought leaders and leading technologists from financial institutions, fintechs and solution providers, businesses, governments, and nonprofit organizations to rapidly develop API products through use of Afinis’ platform for standardized API product discovery, application testing, and developer collaboration. For more information and to learn how to join, visit Afinis.
About NACHA
NACHA is a nonprofit organization that convenes hundreds of diverse organizations to enhance and enable electronic payments and financial data exchange within the U.S. and across geographies. Through development of rules, standards, governance, education, advocacy, and in support of innovation, NACHA’s efforts benefit the providers and users of those systems. NACHA leads groups focused on API standardization, authors the Quest Operating Rules for EBT and is the steward of the ACH Network, a payment system that universally connects all U.S. bank accounts and facilitates the movement of money and information. In 2018, 23 billion ACH payments valued at more than $51 trillion moved across the ACH Network. Visit nacha.org for more information, and connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Kendra Beasley, NACHA, +1 (703) 561-3923, [email protected]
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