Webinars will feature discussions with industry leaders, provide valuable insights and practical guidance to implement faster payments and stay ahead of the competition

Cross River Bank (“Cross River”), a technology infrastructure provider that offers embedded financial solutions, announced today that it will be hosting a webinar series on faster payments, featuring insights from experts across the payments industry. The series will kick off on May 24th at 1pm ET with a conversation between Keith Vander Leest, Head of Payments at Cross River, and Gil Akos, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Astra, on how push-to-card can facilitate faster payments.

During this first webinar, entitled, “Unleashing the Untapped Potential of Push-to-Card Tech for Near Real-Time Payments,” attendees will hear about the benefits of an API-driven push-to-card program, receive guidance on how banks and financial institutions can adopt faster payments via card rails payments into their business strategy, and will walk through the integration process for fintechs. The webinar will be moderated by Andrew Lambert, Head of Product for Cards and BaaS at Cross River.

"The faster payments ecosystem is an increasingly important topic for financial institutions, fintechs, businesses and consumers," said Keith Vander Leest, Head of Payments at Cross River. "With the support of our partners, we will provide valuable insights into the opportunities and landscapes of faster payments and empower attendees to stay competitive in today's fast-paced financial environment.”

The webinar series will feature insights from team members at Cross River, as well as the Company’s partners, including Astra, Trustly, The Clearing House, Paymints.io, and Sardine, among others. Throughout the series, industry experts will explore the rapidly evolving landscape of faster payments, the adoption challenges and use cases of faster payments rails, including: same day ACH processing, RTP^®, push-to-card, and the much anticipated FedNow service.

"We are excited to participate in this webinar and share our expertise on push-to-card payments," said Gil Akos, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Astra. "As businesses look for ways to streamline operations, improve the customer experience, and generate new streams of revenue, real-time payments are becoming an increasingly popular option. We look forward to discussing how businesses can leverage this payment rail through the infrastructure offered by Astra and Cross River.”

Registration for the webinar series is free and open to the public. Interested parties can register at the following link: https://www.crossriver.com/faster-payments-webinar-series/.

About Cross River

Cross River provides technology infrastructure powering the future of financial services. Leveraging its proprietary real-time banking core, Cross River delivers innovative and scalable embedded payments, cards, and lending solutions to millions of consumers and businesses. Cross River is backed by leading investors and serves the world’s most essential fintech and technology companies. Together with its partners, Cross River is reshaping global finance and financial inclusion. Member FDIC. Find out more at www.crossriver.com.

About Astra

Astra offers advanced payment infrastructure, powering faster transfers for fintech products, financial institutions, and enterprises. Astra’s proprietary, vertically-integrated API enables developers to offer instant payments and accelerated bank transfers, with built-in optimizations to reduce risk. For more information, visit https://astrafi.com.

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