Matthew Brazda
Senior Product Manager
Cross River
Biography
Matthew (Matt) is a Senior Product Manager at Cross River and oversees almost all things payments with a focus on instant rails. He manages five payments products: RTP, FedNow, ACH, Wire Transfers, Cross River's on-us rail, XPay, and he is supporting the launch of Cross River’s international payments offering. Matt has helped Cross River build the infrastructure to support real time payments and keep the bank competitive in the Fintech Banking arena. He's always pushing the envelope and going above and beyond for our clients to meet their needs while following industry and regulatory guidelines.
Originally from the greater New York City Metropolitan area, Matt currently resides in Manhattan, New York. His local roots and comprehensive understanding of the financial landscape make him a valuable asset to the region's banking and payments sector. Since graduating from American University in 2014, Matt has been an active contributor to the payments industry, where he's also worked at Mastercard, EY, and The Clearing House. Additionally, Matt is an active member in the NYC Finance community and was awarded a rising star award from the NJ Bankers Association last year.
How is the nominee propelling the industry forward?
Matt has played a pivotal role in driving Cross River's success within the instant payment rails. He launched the RTP product at Cross River in December 2019, which would subsequently lead to Cross River becoming the #2 largest originator on the network, transacting over 10% of the total volume. In September 2023, he spearheaded the launch of Cross River's FedNow Service. Since the launch of FedNow, Matt has established himself as a thought leader with the Federal Reserve and continues to provide them valuable feedback as the emerging network continues to scale. In addition, Matt's commitment to the scalability of Cross River's ACH product has positioned the bank as the #1 largest same-day ACH originator on the FedACH network and the 13th largest overall.
Beyond revenue generating efforts, Matt has contributed to significant cost savings and ensured regulatory compliance for Cross River, while allowing the bank to offer various payment services to several unique emerging fintechs. Cross River's mission to deliver infrastructure for the future of financial services aligns with Matt's vision. He has developed cutting-edge payments offerings prioritizing financial inclusion for underbanked customers. His dedication extends to creating a safer payments ecosystem through regulatory compliance.
Cross River’s customers span across several unique industries within financial services. These include gig economy payouts, crypto, gaming, B2B payments, billpay and remittances, marketplace lending, banking-as-a-service and many more. Lastly, Matt’s support of the development of Cross River’s Cross Border Payments product will help expand access of these best-in-class payment services globally.
In addition to serving Cross River, Matt actively participates in the payments industry, promoting instant payments with customers through public webinars with his partners, such as Trustly, and engagement with organizations like NYPAY. He is also a member of the RTP Advisory Committee formed by The Clearing House and contributes to various working groups related to instant payments.
Where do you see the nominee succeeding in the future?
Matt's unwavering dedication to developing advanced and efficient payment products positions him to expand the scope and impact of emerging payment networks. His recent contributions showcase his expertise in several key areas:
Improving Instant Payment Network Interoperability: Matt is at the forefront of developing solutions using Cross River’s proprietary-based API, COS, that simplify the process for customers choosing among various instant payment options. He is setting a standard for seamless network integration, making payment processes more user-friendly, especially for those less familiar with payment systems.
Solving Liquidity Management Issues: Matt has been instrumental in addressing liquidity management challenges with instant payments, particularly for smaller community banks. His efforts include advocating for beneficial RTP/FedNow policy changes and implementing innovative solutions to improve operational efficiency with liquidity management within these networks.
Expanding RTP & FedNow Request for Payment Features: Matt is actively laying the groundwork to scale the Request for Payment services to address customer needs more effectively. Request for Payment can solve major pain points for customers to instantly fund online accounts and digital wallets, pay bills, and many more use cases.
Scaling the FedNow Network: Given Cross River’s strong market share in instant payments, as the FedNow network brings on more banks, Matt will play a critical role in bringing more volume to FedNow.
Advancing Cross-Border Payments: With TCH’s Cross Border offering on the horizon, Matt’s RTP knowledge will be immensely impactful with making instant cross border payments available to various emerging technology companies, particularly fintechs and startups, which will further promote financial inclusion.
In the future, Matt is poised to continue his trajectory of innovation and leadership in the payments industry. His ongoing efforts are expected to drive significant progress and foster financial inclusivity through the development of cutting-edge payment solutions.