A SIG is a Strategic Interest Group -- a community that represents a specific sub-interest or segment within APP's membership that has a focus of strategic interest to APP, its members, and its mission.
Consider Joining an APP SIG!
Strategic Interest Groups (SIGs) are a great way to network and build connections among a subset of APP members with a common identity or interest. SIGs operate in a manner similar to committees but are often more independent or self-directed.
Please use the menus below to get more information on Current SIGs and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Clicking on the far left side of the menu will collapse the content.
The Strategic Interest Group on Payments Risk and Fraud Trends (PRFT)provides a forum to connect and educate APP members on emerging risks in the payments ecosystem, including fraud trends and high-risk merchant categories. The group promotes best practices for identifying and mitigating fraud, illegal transactions, and other payments-related risks, while monitoring evolving expectations from payment networks, regulators, and financial institutions.
Activities:
Engaging peer-to-peer conversations
The PRFT SIG meets monthly to discuss high risk verticals, risk trends, and risk schemes.
Resources and Education for Members
Any APP member is welcome to join the PRFT SIG.
Papers
The Payments Risk and Fraud Trends have created a cycle of deep discussion and then creating informational papers. Recent topics included Money Mules, EBT Fraud, and Digital Fraud.
The mission of the Bank Consortium is to connect and educate people in the banking industry on issues related to the processing of payments. To help them gain confidence to support the protection of the payments infrastructure, stay in compliance with their obligations as clients of the payment networks, and stay updated on industry best practices.
Activities
Engaging peer-to-peer conversations
The Bank Consortium meets monthly to discuss trends, regulatory developments, emerging topics, and programmatic activities of interest to its members. The Consortium has a moderated forum to allow more asynchronous communications among members of the consortium and there is a directory of consortium members that only members of the consortium can see and access.
Resources and Education for Members
The Bank Consortium is a vital contributor to APP's education and events. They create a panel session for Level Up, and nominate speakers and topics for other webinars. They also invite occasional speakers to their monthly meetings to support discussion and education for consortia members. They created APP's first "Seven Things" white paper for members, and the MAC Payments Acquiring Compendium Kit, also known as the MAC PACK.
Membership
The Bank Consortium has a restricted membership and new members must apply to the SIG to join. There is no additional membership fee for participation in this SIG.
To be a member, an organization must be a merchant acquiring banking institution with a Bank Identification Number (“BIN”) and/or Interbank Card Association (“ICA”) number (“Eligible Bank”) OR be a wholly-owned subsidiary of such merchant acquiring banking institutions that provide merchant acquiring services on behalf of an eligible bank.
For additional details on membership eligibility or other questions about the Bank Consortium, please contact us and we will direct your inquiry to the correct volunteer or staff member for response.
The GR-SIG is dedicated to keeping the membership educated and aware of legal and regulatory issues that affect the payments industry.
Activities
Engaging peer-to-peer conversations
The GR SIG meets bi-weekly to discuss trends, regulatory developments, emerging topics, and programmatic activities of interest to its members.
Resources and Education for Members
The GR SIG is a vital contributor to APP's education and events. They create a panel session for Level Up, and nominate speakers and topics for other webinars. They also invite occasional speakers to their monthly meetings to support discussion and education for SIG members.
Government Relations News
The GR SIG has a long history of producing short and impactful summaries of topics important to APP members.
Please note: Per policies adopted by the APP Board, the Association of Payment Professionals does not engage directly in lobbying efforts at the national, state, or local level.
Membership
The GR SIG has a restricted membership and new members must apply to the SIG to join. There is no additional membership fee for SIG participation. The GR SIG particularly seeks the involvement of members that are directly involved in legal and compliance duties in their professional careers. The SIG is currently reviewing its membership process and criteria, which currently accepts new members only once annually. For additional details on membership eligibility or other questions about the GR-SIG, please contact us and we will direct your inquiry to the correct volunteer or staff member for response.
The Strategic Interest Group on Fraud Trends will provide a forum to connect and educate MAC members on current trends and best practices related to fraud identification and prevention in the payments industry. The group will also monitor developments in compliance requirements and expectations of payment networks and regulators as they relate to monitoring, reporting, or mitigating fraud and other forms of illegal transactions in the payment ecosystem.
Activities
This SIG is in formation stage. Its first few meetings focused on defining the scope of its planned activities.
We encourage members from diverse backgrounds and organizational types to volunteer for this SIG. From small to large, there are many possible volunteer roles to fill related to this SIG in the year ahead. Examples include:
Contributing to short (1 or 2 page) articles on specific topics for distribution to APP members;
Contributing to short "Seven things to know about [name your fraud type]" white papers.
Finding or serving as guest speakers for the SIG, webinars, or the annual conference;
Moderating a community alerts board specific to this SIG;
Sharing updates or sharing articles of interest to the group on ongoing or emerging fraud trends;
Being part of the creation and evaluation of educational content as part of M@Cademy;
Collaborating on the creation of a new community within APP that is inclusive and focused on a topic area central to the work of many APP members.
Membership
This is expected to be an open SIG where any current APP member can join. We are considering two tiers of engagement:
Tier 1: Followers – these members may access the SIG Fraud Community area that will be created in APP Alerts and participate via that channel, but would not be official SIG members
Tier 2: Active Members – these members would be actively involved in SIG activities such as participating in monthly meetings, or contributing content to educational, publication, or other efforts.
Details on how to join the Fraud SIG will be coming in May 2023. If you would like to volunteer and be a part of creating this SIG, then please contact us with your interest.
They provide a vehicle for members and/or subject matter experts within the membership to easily communicate and collaborate. We have additional technology resources (via APP Alerts, Polls, and other aspects of the APP Website) to support these communities in ways that we could not in the past.
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They have potential to create or support non-dues revenue streams for APP. This could come in a few forms. For example, SIGs may support the creation of new products or new programs, enhance existing events, or improve APP membership in general.
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As a community with interest in a topic of strategic importance to APP members, we look to SIGs to be thought leaders for the APP community and share educational content with the broader community. This could be via sessions at APP conferences, newsletters, blog posts, M@Cademy courses, special white papers, or other formats.
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SIGs fill a critical function for the future growth and sustainability of APP: developing content and visibility of APP members and their expertise in topics of strategic importance to the payment ecosystem. APP's reputation is based on delivering practical education and doing it well. SIGs enable us to highlight expertise within the APP membership and create a stronger voice on topics and issues of importance to the APP community.
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SIGs are different from APP Committees. They may define their own leadership model and agenda (with some limits) and have no direct operational obligations to APP as an organization other than an expectation to contribute educational content in some format.
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SIGs allow members to engage and provide value to the community without necessarily serving on a traditional committee. It creates more opportunities for members to engage meaningfully within APP, expanded networking with peers who have common interests, resources to go to when members have questions about a strategic topic area, and more volunteer leadership opportunities to support future succession planning. We are also looking at opportunities to have special networking events exclusively for SIG members linked to Level Up conferences in the future.
How Do We Create a New SIG?
So you want to form a new SIG? Fantastic!
New SIGs are created by submitting an application to the Governance Committee. A SIG's application becomes the group's charter to guide its successful growth. Staff and volunteers can assist you with the application process.
Applications must include the following information:
SIG name.
A primary contact person for the application.
Explanation of how the proposed SIG fits within APP's mission.
An estimate of the number of potential SIG members.
An explanation of how marketing to those potential members will occur.
An explanation of how vetting those that apply to be part of the SIG will occur.
Explanation of the need for the new SIG, including its specific purpose.
The topical areas to be included or encompassed.
Description of the pool of committed leadership available to establish and maintain the proposed SIG.
A list of at least five individuals who will serve as the initial leadership for the SIG.
Upon receipt, APP's Governance Committee will review the application, request any clarifications, and make a recommendation to the Board of Directors. The Board will vote on the application and notify the applicants of their decision.
Do Rules Apply to SIGs?
Yes. SIGs adhere to many of the same policies as APP Committees. However, SIGs are more independent in that they establish their own goals and activities. There are some policies that apply specifically to SIGs that can be found in Section 2 of the Board's Policy and Procedure Manual.
There are three major requirements for SIGs:
SIGs are required to have a charter, where they define their mission and focus, and where they may define additional rules or restrictions--such as any restriction on membership.
SIGs must also closely monitor potential conflicts of interest and adhere to APP's antitrust compliance policies.
SIGs must remain active, with evidence of leadership, multiple members, regular meetings, and a brief annual report on SIG activities.
In addition, when it comes to members, SIGs may largely operate under one of two models:
Open: Any member may join, without restrictions. These SIGs are focused more on networking among people with common interest.
Invitational: Membership may be restricted based on standardized criteria such as industry, participation level, and/or subject matter expertise as long as the criteria are applied consistently and fairly in accordance with APP’s antitrust compliance guidelines. These groups further support APP's strategic goals by contributions of content and expertise to the community.
If you are an employee of an APP member company, we invite you to set up an online account to access the full set of member benefits. Each individual must also have their personal membership account. For most organizations, there is no additional cost to join (some organizations choose to have a smaller "1-2 employee tier". You'll get access right away for most benefits, but please give us 72 hours to fully set up your account.
An APP membership provides access to connections and resources to assist payment and law enforcement professionals with managing risk and preventing fraud through ongoing communication, education, and collaboration.
All membership applications for APP must be approved by the Board of Directors.
