Meeting constituent expectations: how to improve government payments

The development of digital tools has revolutionized many areas of people’s lives – from how they communicate, to how they plan their finances and book trips.

However, many systems in government have not kept pace with these technological developments, leaving users frustrated, and eroding trust in public services. For example, despite faster disbursements being ubiquitous in most of the economy, many disbursements from federal, state and local governments continue to use paper checks. This can add wait time for recipients and provides government entities with no way to track the status of payments, or tackle fraud.

This Global Government Forum, held in partnership with Visa Direct and J.P. Morgan Payments, examined actions that government entities at all levels can take to improve their disbursement processes. The session looked at how government organizations can modernize systems by, for example, making payments direct to recipients’ existing banking accounts using their existing connected debit card vs. using check or automated clearing house (ACH) transactions.

It also examined how governments are building systems that can make better use of digital payments systems to analyse and understand their base of suppliers, using the insight to inform better procurement.

This session brought together public servants to discuss the benefits of such transformations and share insights into how state and local governments have been able to implement changes to legacy systems and payment processes.

Join this session to find out:

• Best practice on how governments at all levels can accelerate innovation that improve payments, promote financial inclusion, and create more resilient systems.

• How digital transformation of disbursements can help governments meet growing constituent expectations for responsive services.

• How technology can bring together information on government procurement and contracts to share insights on suppliers.

• How improved and streamlined payment processes can enhance payment security, tackle fraud risk, and better monitor performance to ensure that payments are made right first time.

Panel

Scott Erickson, County Clerk & Recorder, Knox County, Illinois

Scott Erickson is the County Clerk & Recorder from Knox County, Illinois.  He was elected to the office in 2004 and in 2020 the recording office duties were added to his office.  Prior to becoming County Clerk, Scott worked as a marketing representative for the Illinois State Treasurer’s office.  He served as lead marketer for the Illinois Funds E-Pay credit card program for credit card acceptance by local governing bodies in the State.

A lifelong resident of Knox County, Scott has served on many Boards and civic organizations including the Knox County Fair Board, Knoxville Youth Baseball League, and is on the Board of Trustees for his church.

Scott has also served in leadership roles in his profession by serving as President of the Illinois Association of County Officials in 2018-2019, and as President of the Illinois Association of County Clerks and Recorders in 2017 and again in 2024.  He was a member of the task force that designed the electronic vital records system currently used throughout Illinois.

Kahlida Lloyd, Director, Office of Human Rights & Equity, Mayor’s Office, Mayor LaToya Cantrell, City of New Orleans

Kahlida N. Lloyd serves as Director for the Mayor’s Office of Human Rights & Equity for the City of New Orleans, where she leads efforts to drive equitable polices and initiatives to better serve communities. An attorney and experienced public sector leader, Kahlida brings a strong commitment to equity and efficiency in public service delivery. With a background in legal advocacy, community organizing, and systems reform, she has worked across sectors with a goal to implement innovative, people-centered solutions that improve access and outcomes for historically underserved residents

Brian Page, Managing Director, J.P. Morgan Chase

Brian Page, National Head of Government Banking, is based in Dallas. He serves as the Chairman for the North Texas Market Leadership team representing over 18K JPMChase employees. In his tenure of over twenty-nine years with the firm, Brian has also served as Head of Treasury Services & Southwest Government Banking Industry Manager. Prior to those recent roles he served as the West Region Commercial Bank lead of Government, Healthcare, Higher Ed and Not-For-Profit banking, South Region Government Banking Executive, Southwest Regional Treasury Executive for Business Banking, Asset Management and Dealer Commercial Services, and various banker roles. Brian has also held the role of national liaise to Asset Management coordinating sales, strategy, product, client service and implementation for Treasury Services and served as the Chair of the Government Council in 2012 and 2013 for the commercial bank. Brian is a proven leader with a track record of success and has been nationally recognized six times with the Treasury Services Chairman’s Award and five times with the President’s Award in Business Banking for the best performing region.

Brian is a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP), a Municipal Finance Professional (MFP), and has completed the firm’s Certificate of Management Program. Brian graduated Magna Cum Laude earning a Bachelor of Business Administration, Management from The University of Texas. He is a member of the Association for Financial Professionals and Southern Gateway Alliance advisory board. Past board service includes National Association of State Treasurers, Eagle Point POA, President of the Castle Hills HOA, as well as various community-based organizations over the years.

Brian is married (Sarah) with two children (Kaylee and Tyler) and enjoys spending time in the outdoors boating and golfing with his family.

Curtis Webb, Senior Director, Head of Disbursements and Go-to-market Strategy, Money Movement Solutions, North America, Visa

Curtis Webb is Senior Director, Head of Disbursements and Go-to-market Strategy, Money Movement Solutions, North America at Visa. Visa aspires to be the best way to be paid by everyone everywhere. Visa Direct is a service that enables money movement for all segments, verticals, and use cases domestic and cross-border.

Curtis’ team leads business-funded and government-funded disbursement real-time money movement product strategy and product management, including labor and wages payouts, emerging and small and medium businesses. His team is also responsible for established use cases like government, loan disbursements, and merchant settlement.

Curtis’ payments industry areas of focus include acquiring, tokenization, bill payments, and real-time faster payments. In the past, Curtis served in various product management leadership roles at MetaBank/Pathward, Citibank, and Mastercard. Curtis holds a Master of Business Administration from Northeastern University and a Bachelor of Science in Management from Saint Francis University. Curtis is also a licensed Private Pilot with the US Federal Aviation Administration.

Freda Richardson Taylor, Deputy Director of Finance/Comptroller, City of New Orleans

Comptroller Freda G. Richardson-Taylor is the wife of Edgar J. Taylor, the daughter of the late Fred & Elma Richardson, and the sister of Nena Richardson-Lee and Fred Richardson, IV, with one adorable niece, Shelby Victoria Lee. Comptroller Richardson-Taylor started her financial educational journey in the halls of the illustrious McDonogh 35 Senior High School, the oldest New Orleans high school for African Americans. In her junior year of high school, her Finance teacher, Mrs. Glenda Ganier, introduced her to Accounting. That one course enlightened Ms. Freda, after graduating #7 out of 327 graduates of the Mighty Class of 1993 [First National Blue-Ribbon Class], to attend her parent’s Alma Mater [where they met & married in June 1967], Southern University A&M College in Baton Rouge, LA, and study Accounting. While attending college, Ms. Freda was inducted into the National Honor Society, National Association of Black Accountants [NABA[, and Sigma Beta Delta. These associations, along with tutoring her peers, being a dormitory resident assistant, and head mock Accounting interviewee for most Fortune 500 companies that went through the Student Career Services center, allowed Ms. Freda to graduate in May 1997 as an honor graduate Magna Cum Laude with her B.S. in Accounting. Upon graduation, Ms. Freda worked for less than a year for the City of New Orleans as an Accountant I in the Bureau of Treasury before moving to Richardson, TX, a suburb of Dallas, TX, to attend graduate school at the University of Texas at Dallas [UTD], in August 1998. While attending grad school, Ms. Freda deviated from governmental Accounting. She started a career in the Natural Gas Compression industry, plenteous in Texas, the mecca for the oil & gas industry. In May 2001, Ms. Freda graduated Cum Laude with her M.B.A.

Relocation to her hometown of New Orleans upon graduation, Ms. Freda was blessed to regain employment with the City of New Orleans in April 2002 as an Accountant I again, but this time with the New Orleans Aviation Board, which is a component unit of the City. In the 15 years of working at NOAB, she matriculated from Accountant I to Acting Capital Manager. Afterward, Ms. Freda was allowed to return to the City of New Orleans in January 2018, but this time as the Assistant Comptroller for the Bureau of Accounting. While leading the audit and completing and timely submitting the City’s audit that year, Ms. Freda was appointed by the new CFO, Norman White, during the first term of the City of New Orleans’ First African-American Female Mayor LaToya Cantrell, the financial project lead of configuring the new ERP [Enterprise Resource Planning] financial system. This was the first colossal project Ms. Freda was in charge of, and even though it proved to be a heavy lift, stressful, tiresome, and complicated task, it was proven successful and afforded Ms. Freda to become the Second African-American Female Comptroller for the City of New Orleans in September 2019. Then, in April 2024, once again, breaking barriers, Ms. Freda became the First African-American Female to hold dual positions of Deputy Director of Finance and Comptroller for the City of New Orleans at the same time.

Lastly, to balance work and personal life goals, Ms. Freda has numerous civic accolades, including, but not limited to Former Board of Director of the McDonogh 35 Alumni Association, initiate of Ladies of HEIRA, current lifetime member and supporter of McDonogh 35 Alumni Association and Southern University Alumni Association; Communication Liaison for Val & Love Alive Mass Choir; and Board of Director of Queendom101.

Webinar chair: Siobhan Benita, Moderator, Global Government Forum

Siobhan was a senior civil servant in the UK with more than 15 years’ Whitehall experience. She worked in many of major delivery departments, including Transport, Environment, Health and Local Government. She also had senior roles at the heart of government in the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury, including supporting the then Cabinet Secretary, Lord O’Donnell, to lead work on civil service reform and strategy. Siobhan left to run as an independent candidate in the Mayor of London election. She subsequently joined her alma mater, Warwick University, as Chief Strategy Officer of Warwick in London and Co-Director of the Warwick Policy Lab.