Over 20 plus years ago, Keith Gray was approached by a company in the early stages of online banking. As a result, he has spent most of his career working for banking technology companies, on the vender side of the equation. Four years ago, Keith joined the team at The Clearing House, working on Secure Token Exchange. Today, Keith still works at The Clearing House as Vice-President of Strategic Partnerships. Here, he works with real-time payment initiation and manages partner relationships.

When asked about his opinion on the top issue facing the payments industry, he explained that people’s expectations have moved to a more real-time based environment. He said, “you get items from Amazon in one day, but it takes payments three days. You can buy a golf club faster than payments. It makes no sense to be slow. We must match our banking system to changing consumer expectations. Everything is faster now. The internet has had a dramatic impact on payments.”

As a college student, Keith was interested in history and went on to receive his Bachelor’s degree in History from Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tennessee. Reading history-based literature and biographies still interests Keith. He shared that he is truly inspired by historical figures like Teddy Roosevelt because of his “try something” approach. Try something, and if it doesn’t work, try something else.

Professionally, Keith is passionate about The Clearing House’s Real Time Payments (RTP) network. He shared, “it’s industry changing and has the potential to change the services offered to account holders at financial institutions. It could change the way people interact with their bank or credit union. It’s an exciting time in the payments space!” Personally, Keith is passionate about his family. He is married and has one older son, leaving he and his wife in the “empty nesting” phase of their lives. They currently reside in Hendersonville, Tennessee and own a second home in Hendersonville, North Carolina. A lover of the outdoors, Keith spends lots of time hiking and enjoying nature.

We are so excited for Keith’s session, RTP Update: How Banks and Credit Unions are Leveraging RTP to Better Serve Their Customers, which will be occurring twice on day two of EPCOR Payments Conference – Fall 2018! We asked what Keith hopes attendees will take away from his session, and he shared, “I hope their take away is the potential of this new network for the industry in general and what you should do now to take advantage.” You don’t want to miss out Keith’s session, or the other 30+ sessions being offered October 24-26 in Overland Park, Kansas! Check out our conference website and register today!