Please state your name, title, company, and email address to provide to prospective partners and customers interested in receiving more information.

Jennifer Cruz, Senior Vice President of U.S. Credit Issuance and U.S. & Canadian Acceptance within Discover Network at Discover Financial Services. Discover Network connects participants across the payments ecosystem to provide acceptance to cardholders.

I’m responsible for the strategic growth of U.S. Credit Issuance, focused on overall profitability as well as merchant acceptance within the U.S. and Canada. With my integrated background in Marketing, Sales and Operations, I continue to refine, develop, and implement multi-pronged strategies to gain new network participants, drive acceptance growth and focus on increasing volume and revenue. I also serve as a DE&I Council sponsor for the Discover Network organization and am a mentor to individuals at Discover.

Contact/Email: Katiegaynor@discover.com (PR contact)

 

How are you different than other brands in your space?

 

What differentiates us from others in the payments space is the communication and close relationships Discover Global Network has with our merchants. Our relationship strategy is a vital part of the model that makes us an industry leader. While we work directly with merchants, we also maintain strong relationships with issuers, acquirers, payment service providers, networks around the world and industry groups. These relationships allow us to closely monitor what merchants find valuable now and what will be important next in the payments industry.

How would you describe your value proposition to prospective customers and channel partners?

 

Our value proposition lies in delivering top tier, comprehensive services that are typically available only to larger organizations but tailored for small and mid-sized businesses. We blend our extensive financial institution and fintech industry expertise with personalized, local service, allowing clients to meet their unique growth goals. 

 

What recent challenges have your company’s leadership faced and how did you overcome them? 

The payments industry is always evolving, which often brings organizational changes to align teams in new ways to support customers and partners. We saw change this year in many ways, including some leadership shifts across the payments business – one of which was my own move to my current role as Senior Vice President of U.S. Credit Issuance and U.S. & Canadian Acceptance. 

Organizational changes are not rare in an evolving industry like ours and navigating them requires careful planning to stay focused on our customers and, most importantly, our people.  Leaders need to stay focused on growing the team and moving forward to achieve results – and I feel we have done that successfully here at Discover.

What recent milestone have you achieved and why is it significant? 

I recently celebrated 22 years with Discover and over that time I had the opportunity to work in marketing, operations, and relationship management working closely with merchants, acquirers, digital enablers, and issuers. Each position has given me unique distinctions while working with the payment’s ecosystem. Currently my team is the conduit to the participants of the Network, this provides a feedback loop to enhance products, solve problems, and ensure regular cadence of communication.

What near-term opportunities will 2025 present to you and your team?

Discover Network will continue to expand our reach, continue to optimize authorization rates, fight the fraud fight, and work closely with our issuers and the payment ecosystem to shape the customer experience.

What were the key trends for your industry in 2024, and why do you think it’s important?

Trends that are top of mind for the payments industry – and merchants and customers – are fraud and ease of use. In fact, our 2024 Payments State of the Union study found consumers want financial institutions to empower them with better fraud controls (38%) and the ability to make/receive instant payments (37%). 

Providing solutions in these areas that are easy to integrate is a top priority for us. That’s why we offer a number of solutions related to fraud including Discover Enhanced Decisioning, which provides issuers with enriched data to make more informed transaction decisions, and ProtectBuy, a solution that validates customer identity. Solutions like these are always evolving to stay ahead of the market and provide the best possible support for merchants.