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Why the Association for Financial Technology?

In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, independent service bureaus provided core data processing services for small and medium size banks, thrifts and credit unions. Some of these data centers were privately owned and others were co-ops owned by the financial institutions served by them.

The principals of these data centers attended the leading financial industry meetings but found that their needs were not adequately served. A group of forward-thinking, entrepreneurial data center operators decided to form their own organization and the forerunner of the Association for Financial Technology was born on December 6, 1972 at a meeting held in Fremont, Ohio with representatives of 19 data centers attending.

The National Association of Bank Servicers (NABS) grew to 120 companies in the 1980’s, and then shrank in numbers as mergers and acquisitions became very common. The industry continued to grow and the organization continued its success with a smaller membership. The organization also opened its membership to providers of computer hardware, software and other applications and solutions of benefit to core processors.

The organization changed its name in 1994 to better reflect the scope of its membership. Today, Association for Financial Technology member companies provide core processing services for over 80% of the nation’s banks, thrifts and credit unions.

Why Two Meetings Annually?
The founding members realized early on that meeting once a year was not frequently enough to keep abreast the rapidly evolving technology and ever-changing regulatory requirements. Their bank and thrift customers demanded the latest and best products to stay ahead of the competition and they needed to comply with state and Federal regulations in the process. It was up to our member companies and their vendor partners to satisfy these needs.

AFT meets twice annually, in March and September, to present programs of vital, current interest to its members. Both meetings are usually 2 ½ days in duration, and are rotated throughout the country with an occasional conference in Canada.

The Spring Meeting & Workshops features general sessions as well as concurrent break-out sessions designed specifically for sales/marketing and operations/customer service managers. The Annual meeting is held in the fall and consists primarily of top financial industry speakers addressing the latest trends and techniques. This conference also serves as the organization’s annual business meeting and election. Many member company CEO’s choose to attend this meeting and participate in a unique CEO Forum.

Both meetings include lively interactive sessions where the topics are selected by the attendees and discussed in depth. Most meetings attendees rate these sessions as the most valuable and production of the entire conference, and consider the information exchanged as worth many times the cost of attending. It is also these sessions the spawned the term “coop-etition”, an AFT-coined word combining cooperation and competition.

Both meetings also include receptions, luncheons, special evening events and spouse/guest programs, which take advantage of area attractions.

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