Paul W. Finch, Jr.

Paul W. Finch, Jr. was the chief executive officer of Early Warning Services from 2003 to April of 2019. As a recognized financial technology innovator, he successfully guided Early Warning through several transformations, beginning with the transition to a bank-owned consortium model in 2006, and continuing with a series of strategic acquisitions and partnerships, including Austin Logistics, Authentify®, Payfone® and clearXchangeTM.

Under Finch’s leadership, Early Warning consistently achieved year-over-year growth and expanded beyond its Scottsdale headquarters to include offices around the U.S. Finch is responsible for building an executive leadership team that has established Early Warning as the pre-eminent provider of real-time payments, risk and authentication solutions to financial institutions nationwide.

In 2017, together with financial institutions across the U.S., Early Warning launched Zelle® – the banking industry’s first real-time payments network. In 2020, Zelle exceeded 1 billion payments processed annually and in the 3rd Quarter of 2020, the Zelle network moved more than $84-billion in consumer payments. From small community banks and credit unions to the largest national banks, more than 1000 financial institutions have joined the Zelle Network to date. And for more than 140-million consumers, Zelle is already available in their mobile banking app.

In 2017, Finch was named one of the 10 most innovative CEOs in Banking by Bank Innovation magazine.

Finch began his career in the payments industry as the founder and CEO of ACH Systems, an electronic payment technology outsourcing company specializing in the processing and settlement of U.S. ACH transactions. Subsequently, he headed global operations, technology and customer support at eFunds corporation.

Finch holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Northern Arizona University. He is the president of the Finch Family Foundation, a non-profit organization in Phoenix dedicated to serving children and families in need.