LOST PINES, Texas–It’s not just about getting connected when it comes to faster payments—it’s about a whole lot more, according to one person.
In looking at what has happened so far in 2025 and what lies ahead in 2026 in payments, Brad Ganey, SVP/COO with Catalyst Corporate, acknowledged during the company’s Strategic Summit event that a tremendous amount of change is occurring during the evolution from traditional payments to instant payments.
Ganey, who told the meeting Catalyst Corporate is the largest provider of check services to credit unions and serves more than 3,000 credit unions overall, teased that new integrations will be announced soon, but added, “Without a doubt, the big focus has been all things instant payments.
“We were part of the first transaction ever that occurred on FedNow, and we’ve just been taking it from there,” he said. “A large focus is working with credit unions on not only getting connected, but what to do with that strategically. A lot of what we’re working on really leans into that. It’s not just purely a defensive measure. This year it’s been about partnerships, integrations, APIs—all those buzzwords.”
Quickly Evolving
He noted Catalyst is now connected to dozens of digital providers and core systems.
“You can see how quickly it’s evolving,” he said. “One thing that I would stress is how quickly things are evolving. In March of this year I told you about our faster payment solutions, and it’s a very different story today. We’ve got a new open payments hub that we will be introducing and talking about as we go forward. We also have a dynamic digital payments platform. So, there are a lot of things that take you from just connecting to those rails to what you do from an indirect lending perspective, what you do from the perspective of disbursements and all those things that support your members and actually help you gain market share. That’s what we’re going to continue to see in 2026. It’s not just about getting connected—it’s about being strategic and holistic.”
