An in-depth conversation with Dave on how real-time, intelligent payment orchestration is reshaping enterprise infrastructure and operational strategy.
Dave, to start us off, could you share a bit about your professional background and how that journey has shaped your perspective on the evolution of payment infrastructure?
I spent the first part of my career in payments on the gateway and e-commerce side, working at CyberSource, then Visa, and later Worldpay in London. Being in Europe when regulators introduced PSD2 and open banking schemes was eye-opening. I watched them create a level playing field where bank account payments could compete with card rails. That experience fundamentally changed how I view payment infrastructure.
I learned a lot from working at Mastercard and Visa, and those experiences still affect my work today. But at that level, innovation works differently. There are layers of infrastructure, regulation, and decision-making that naturally slow things down.
When I joined Dwolla in 2021, I made a deliberate shift from preserving legacy systems to modernizing them. After 25 years in this industry, I’ve learned that Enterprises don’t need more payment options. They need smarter orchestration of the options that exist to understand when speed matters, when it doesn’t, and how to deliver the right combination for each use case.
What industry trends or technological advancements are driving the institutional shift toward real-time, account-to-account (A2A) payments?
The numbers tell the story: ACH processed 33.6 billion payments worth $86.2 trillion in 2024, and Same-Day ACH is up 9.2% this year. When compared to cards, enterprises are realizing that A2A payments deliver lower costs, better data, and direct settlement. They’re another piece to the payments puzzle.
The real driver is operational efficiency. When you’re processing vendor payments or insurance claims, you need rich remittance data for reconciliation. Real-time A2A payments include that data automatically, saving finance teams hours of manual work.
The infrastructure is finally ready, too. RTP and FedNow give us true instant settlement options. Open banking APIs can enable enterprises to seamlessly integrate their payment systems across different financial services.
Based on your experience at Mastercard and now at Dwolla, how have expectations for payment infrastructure evolved in the last five years?
Five years ago, enterprises wanted faster payments. Now they want intelligent payments. The conversation has shifted from “how quickly can you move money” to “how can you help us make smarter decisions about when and how to move money.”
At Dwolla, more and more enterprises we work with are asking, “Can you route this payment through the most cost-effective rail automatically? Can you provide real-time visibility for cash positions? Can you handle 24/7 operations even though our team only works 9 to 5?”
The pandemic accelerated this shift. Companies that relied on paper checks suddenly couldn’t. They needed digital alternatives immediately, but they also needed those alternatives to integrate with their existing systems. Infrastructure expectations now include API-first design, real-time processing capabilities, and intelligent orchestration, not just speed.
“Orchestrating money movement” is emerging as a key strategic focus. What does this concept mean in practice, and why is it critical to the next generation of financial infrastructure?
Orchestration means the payment system decides the optimal path for each transaction without human intervention. Is RTP available for this bank? Is the amount below the FedNow limit? Does this payment need instant settlement, or can it wait for Same-Day ACH at a lower cost?
In practice, this looks like a single API that handles all your payment types. Behind that API, the system makes intelligent decisions based on your business rules. A lending company might prioritize speed for loan disbursements but cost for collecting repayments. The orchestration layer handles that complexity automatically.
Without orchestration, enterprises end up managing multiple payment providers, each with different integration requirements, reporting formats, and operational processes. That complexity kills efficiency. Next-generation infrastructure needs to abstract away these complexities while maintaining control and visibility.
What are the biggest challenges enterprises face when implementing embedded payments at scale?
The operational transformation is harder than the technical integration. Most enterprises aren’t prepared for what real-time, embedded payments actually mean. Your fraud detection has to happen before the payment goes out, not after. Your support team needs to handle payment inquiries 24/7. Your reconciliation processes need to handle continuous data streams instead of neat daily batches.
I’ve seen companies nail the API integration but fail on operational readiness. They launch embedded payments, then realize their finance team can’t reconcile in real time, their risk systems can’t handle the volume, or their customer service isn’t equipped for instant payment inquiries.
The other challenge is managing the transition from batch to real-time mindsets. Treasury teams accustomed to end-of-day positions suddenly need continuous monitoring. That requires new workflows, new training, and often new people. The technology is ready, but the organizations often aren’t.
In the shift to real-time payments, how are risk and fraud prevention strategies evolving?
The irrevocable nature of instant payments completely changes the risk equation. With ACH, you had days to catch fraud. With real-time payments, you have seconds. This requires predictive analytics rather than reactive detection.
We’re seeing enterprises invest heavily in machine learning models that analyze patterns before approving transactions. But it goes beyond just technology. Real-time payments require different operational controls. You need stricter authentication upfront, better vendor verification processes, and clear authorization workflows.
The data richness of real-time payments actually helps with fraud prevention, though. When every transaction includes detailed remittance information, anomalies become more apparent. A payment that doesn’t match typical patterns or lacks expected data fields gets flagged immediately. The key is having systems sophisticated enough to analyze this data in real time.
When it comes to payment modernization inside large organizations, who is typically leading the charge—CFOs, CTOs, or someone else?
It depends on the pain point driving modernization. If it’s about cash flow visibility and working capital optimization, the CFO leads. If it’s about replacing legacy infrastructure or API integration, the CTO drives it. But increasingly, I’m seeing dedicated roles like Chief Digital Officers or VPs of Digital Transformation taking ownership because payment modernization touches everything.
Implementations are more successful when finance and technology work together from day one. The CFO understands the business case and operational impact. The CTO understands the technical requirements and integration challenges. When they align, modernization actually happens. When they don’t, projects stall in competing priorities.
In mid-market companies, it’s often a VP of Finance or Controller who champions modernization because they feel the daily pain of manual processes. They’re reconciling payments, managing bank relationships, and hearing from vendors about late payments. That operational pain creates urgency that drives change.
What role do APIs and platform interoperability play in building flexible, scalable payment systems across industries like fintech, healthcare, or logistics?
APIs are table stakes now. The real question is how well those APIs handle the complexity of different industry requirements. A fintech needs instant onboarding and immediate fund availability. Healthcare needs HIPAA compliance and detailed remittance data for claim processing. Logistics companies need split payments and multi-party settlements.
Platform interoperability means your payment system can talk to any ERP, accounting system, or banking platform without custom integration work. This is where standards like ISO 20022 become critical. When everyone speaks the same data language, integration complexity drops dramatically.
We see better results when platforms provide industry-specific configurations on top of standard APIs. They use the same underlying infrastructure, but it’s pre-configured for specific use cases. A lending company gets disbursement workflows out of the box. An insurance company gets claims payment templates. This combination of standardization and customization enables both scale and flexibility.
Looking ahead, what’s one disruptive innovation or regulatory shift you believe will have the biggest impact on enterprise payments in the next 2–3 years?
The predictive capabilities of intelligent orchestration will streamline payments in powerful ways by anticipating which rail to use, how to avoid failed transactions, and when to move money. This takes the difficulty out of managing multiple payment vendors, legacy ACH files, and different APIs for different rails. By replacing all of this with a single API that can handle everything through one interface, your business reduces its manual efforts, giving you time to focus on more strategic business operations.
Predictability is also a form of reliability. When your payments are predictable, your business runs better because you’re prepared to secure your system and scale as needed. This means happier clients, fewer problems, and more trust in your organization. Everyone wants to say they’re using AI or the latest tech, but it means nothing if you can’t marry innovation and reliability.
Finally, what advice would you give to enterprise leaders who are just beginning their payment modernization journey?
First, start with a single, painful use case and solve it completely. Don’t try to modernize everything at once. Pick vendor payments, or insurance claims, or loan disbursements—whatever causes the most operational friction. Implement modern payments for that one workflow, measure the impact, and use that success to build momentum.
Next, focus on operational readiness as much as technology. Your teams need training, your processes need updating, and your policies need revision. The API integration might take weeks, but organizational change takes months. Plan accordingly.
Finally, choose partners, not vendors. Payment modernization is a journey that requires ongoing support, not a one-time implementation. Work with providers who understand your industry, have experience with enterprises at your scale, and can support you as requirements evolve. And remember, reliability beats speed every time. Better to launch with solid infrastructure than rush to market with something that might fail when you need it most.
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