SVP, Enterprise Payments Strategy Leader
SouthState Bank
Tara Edmonds is Senior Vice President and Enterprise Payments Strategy Leader at SouthState Bank, where she leads the bank's enterprise payments strategy across consumer, business, and commercial banking. She drives major transformation initiatives spanning digital assets, instant payments, ISO 20022, and payments modernization, partnering across the organization to deliver next-generation payment capabilities.
With more than a decade of banking experience, Tara has held leadership roles across operations, technology, strategy, M&A, and payments. She is a frequent speaker at industry forums, including Nacha and American Banker, where she shares insights on digital assets, instant payments, ISO 20022, and emerging technologies shaping the future of banking. Her industry recognitions include NACHA’s Top 15 Under 40, Money20/20 RiseUp 2024, and Charleston Business Magazine’s Best & Brightest 35 and Under.
On-chain finance promises to address all three structural failures at once: Tokenized receivables to unlock instant liquidity; programmable infrastructure to unify fragmented systems; and real-time data to expand access to capital.
But the promise of on-chain is not the same as widespread adoption by small businesses. This panel examines whether on-chain finance fundamentally changes how small businesses access and manage capital—or simply improves existing models with new rails. The discussion will include: