Richard K. Crone leads Crone Consulting LLC, helping financial institutions, billers, merchants, payment networks, processors, start-ups and investors transform payments from a cost of business to revenue-producing new lines of business.
 
In his 30-year career in financial services, he has focused on harnessing the technological innovations that have shaped the industry, from the introductions of ATMs, home banking, Internet commerce, and Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment, to today’s Mobile banking and payment developments.

Mr. Crone has helped define the mobile commerce strategy for leading financial institutions, wireless carriers, payment processors, large recurring billers, card issuers, device manufacturers and technology start-ups.  Crone Consulting, LLC has performed due diligence on many of the largest M&A deals and tier-one venture-backed investments in online “alternative payments” and the mobile commerce arena.

Deep knowledge of this emerging market is due to Crone Consulting, LLC’s ongoing, extensive primary research of more than 93+ different mobile financial service options deployed both domestically and abroad.  Additionally, Crone Consulting closely monitors another 40+ companies concentrating in the so called online “alternative payments” space.  

Crone Consulting, LLC’s Payments Optimization practice has assisted financial institutions, merchants and large recurring billers achieve 10 – 30% reductions in costs by managing the payment type mix while boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty, plus identifying new revenue opportunities by developing new payments “products” and markets with innovative customer self-service strategies.

The firm’s Best Practices Benchmark Database provides clients with insight that is unmatched in the industry, helping to streamline the consideration of electronic and mobile payment options and defining unique leapfrog mobile payment and customer self-service strategies.  
 
The son of two bankers, Richard Crone spent the early years of his career at Unisys marketing transaction processing systems, followed by eight years with KPMG Consulting (now Bearing Point) as a Senior Manager where he founded the firm’s Center for Electronic Banking.   In 1995 he led Home Savings of America as Senior Vice President & Director of Electronic Banking in their successful release of online banking with Microsoft Money and Intuit's Quicken.  Mr. Crone drew upon his nearly 20 years of payment and remittance processing experience to envision and launch the first Electronic Check Service in 1996, CyberCash’s PayNow™.  His consulting client list is a virtual who’s who in electronic commerce and financial services.  He was part of the founding team, and served on the Board of Directors of edocs, the preeminent supplier of customer self service and Internet bill presentment and payment solutions, from the company’s inception until it was sold to Siebel. It now forms the basis of Oracle’s Self Service Division.