Breaking Banks Fintech

In This Episode Iceland is a small country doing big things in fintech, but also in healthtech, renewable energy, gaming, and the ocean-based blue economy. Few countries fared worse during the 2008 global economic crisis, which had a profound impact on the country’s financial system, currency, and overall economy. The economy gradually recovered, and by the 2010s, Iceland experienced steady economic growth. Today Iceland has a high standard of living. Its citizens enjoy access to quality healthcare and education with a relatively low level of income inequality, and it is the global leader in diversity, equity, and inclusion. JP Nicols visited Reykjavik to meet with some of the people innovating to drive these outcomes, including the country’s First Lady who is proud of her country’s achievements, yet declares that “good enough, is not good enough”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atOEvLoB8dQ

In This Episode Does financial services ever have an off-season? Is now the time to update your playbook? . Today, host JP Nicols tackles a few of these questions and then speaks with James Anderson, Paze's Managing Director, about a new launch on track for early next year. Paze is a new digital bank wallet from Early Warning Services, the fintech company that brought us Zelle several years ago and is owned by some of the largest banks in the US. A completely separate venture focused on e-commerce payments, Paze no doubt benefits from learnings in creating Zelle. The US payments world is complicated, Paze aims to be ubiquitous on both consumer and merchant sides, the piece in the middle connecting financial institutions, providing better outcomes, and making purchases more convenient and secure. Launching with more than 1,000 banks, Paze is 100% online payments focused, offered by participating banks and credit unions, built to simplify and secure checkout by tokenizing credit and debit card numbers so

In This Episode This week we begin our episode with the third in our special series on fintech visionaries reimagining the future of finance. Brett King is joined by Jayesh Patel, CEO of Wio Bank, and Thomas Kuncheria, EEMEA Senior Vice President for Advisors Client Services at Mastercard. Wio, the UAE's first platform bank with a mission to transform banking in its region, is focusing on three core capabilities -- digital banking applications, embedded finance and BaaS. Through partnership with Mastercard, Wio is helping customers thrive in this digital world, offering personalized features and seamlessly integrated services with a goal to make banking simple, transparent and secure, offering customers access to tools to manage their finances effortlessly and at lower cost than other alternatives. It's another interesting piece in the series spotlighting the benefits of partnership and empowering partners to disrupt and revolutionize. Then, are non-traditional loan underwriting criteria -- i.e. market,

In This Episode Opening Minds and changing legacy behaviors can be challenging. This week JP Nicols connects with Jim Perry, Senior Strategist, Market Insights about new perspectives young cohorts bring to money in the digital age, not just in practice but in ways the industry can better align its leadership with today's general demographics. Rechanneling, retooling and meeting customers where they are today, to better represent our ecosystem, across the entire spectrum, can make for a more engaged workforce and help financial institutions stay relevant. By setting the bar where it needs to be, bringing value through DEI and sharing different perspectives, financial institutions can also increase stickiness in customer relationships. Then, JP continues the thread of new perspectives and ways of doing things in his recent conversation with Brandon Spear, CEO, TreviPay. When it comes to trade credit for business customers, and the associated complexity that is inherent in the B2B space with multiple stake

In This Episode Want to wow your family over the holidays with your fintech and banking knowledge? We offer a helpful primer for Thanksgiving table conversations as Breaking Banks' Jason Henrichs gathers with industry notables and friends Kiah Haslett, Bank Director; Alex Johnson. Fintech Takes; Jason Mikula, Fintech Business Weekly; and Mary Wisniewski, Cornerstone Advisors to talk banking turkey, give thanks, and share the nerd things they'll be talking about around their dinner tables. Happy Thanksgiving from Breaking Banks!

In This Episode Regulators are bringing it, market pressures are adding to it and Jason Henrichs and Alex Johnson are jumping right in on Open Banking US with the Ghost Pepper hot sauce. Listen as the dynamic duo decipher the proposed 1033 ruling from CFPB, what it means for financial institutions and consumers, who owns transaction data, how it can be used, and how the sharing of data lakes would enable mutual relationships and better financial decisions. Efforts are underway to bring clarity to the market and while Open Banking US applies to financial institutions, it will also affect big tech with all the data and information they have on us (i.e. Amazon and Apple), and anyone who offers a credit card and digital wallet. How does BNPL fit into the mix? It's another hot take from Breaking Banks. Then, JP Nicols interviews Kevin Hart, CEO of Green Check, about the challenges for banks and credit unions to compliantly and profitably serve cannabis-related businesses (CRBs). Cannabis is legal in nearly h

In This Episode This week join Brett King as he discusses the latest research from a newly released study on expectations vs reality in financial services. It's an enlightening conversation with DeAndre Jones, Chief Client Officer, FIS Banking Solutions and John Stuckey, Senior Director, Product, FIS Retail Solutions exploring the priorities of consumers when choosing financial services providers, the priorities of financial services executives in where they are investing for future innovation, and the points of alignment and misalignment between the two populations. Then we learn how Clear is expanding beyond the airport and into fintech, just to be 'clear' airports are where they proved out their thesis around secure identity and what it does to unlock experiences, now they are bringing learnings into the digital space. Digital identity is a hot topic, and financial services is a great space in which to play. It's an interesting segment with host JP Nicols and Derek Gottfrid, Chief Product Officer, th

In This Episode Join Jason Henrichs as he speaks with Matt Wilcox, President, Digital Payments and Data Aggregation, Fiserv; Raja Chakravorti, Universal Access Lead, Plaid and Aly Yarris, Financial Access, Partnerships at Plaid about Open Banking today, how banks might want to approach it. Our guests give a quick lay of the land in digital finance right now, talking about data, data sharing and privacy, ownership, the importance of secure connectivity, access points and APIs, Addressing growing consumer demand to access their financial information when, where and how they want, Fiserv and Plaid recently announced an agreement to enable secure connectivity to allow consumers to do just that -- share their financial information with the third-party financial apps and services of their choice working with established connections and key infrastructure. It's an informative segment with relevancy for banks of all sizes. Then JP Nicols connects with Scarlett Sieber, Chief Strategy & Growth Officer at M20/20 t

In This Episode This week we feature the second of a three part series focusing on fintech visionaries reimagining the future of finance.  In today's first segment, Brett King and JP Nicols are joined by Solana Cozzo, Head of Mastercard Advisors Business Development for Latin America and the Caribbean, and Mariana Franza, Chief Operating Officer at Ualá. Ualá, an Argentine fintech company, partnered with Mastercard to offer users an innovative and integrated digital experience with convenient and lower-cost services than other alternatives. Argentina has a large unbanked and underbanked population, and Uala has quite a story to tell with 5.5 million customers in 5 years and the ability to meet customers where they are and how they want to engage. It's another interesting segment in the series spotlighting the benefits of partnership and empowering partners to disrupt, revolutionize and grow with agility and speed where there is need. Smart decisions with positive outcomes. Then we travel with Brett to K

In This Episode It's Fintech on Fire, and more Hot Takes from MX's Money Experience Summit in Las Vegas. This episode features three bold panelists eager to tackle hot questions and even hotter wings! For every question and hot take, our panelists Mary Wisniewski, Editor-at-Large, Cornerstone Advisors; Neff Hudson, Trusted Leader in Transformation Change, Castle Hills Consulting, retired USAA veteran (pun intended); and Wes Hummel, CTO, MX will join host, moderator and spice aficionado Jason Henrichs in eating progressively spicier chicken wings. The discussion is hot and the sauces bring out some honest and entertaining reactions. It's another Hot Takes hot session as they look to the future and work up to MXtreme's secret sauce! https://youtu.be/ymHut7J6cIc

In This Episode In this week's episode of Breaking Banks, Brett King engages in an informative and dynamic discussion with Jonathan Anastasia, EVP, Crypto & Security Innovation, Mastercard and Mike Cossetta, Head of Revenue at Paxos Trust Company about why financial leaders should be investing in blockchain now. It's a watershed moment for stablecoins and an opportunity to extend the benefits of blockchain technology to the realm of traditional finance and everyday transactions while ensuring integrity and security for customers. The trio cover it all -- the state of the market today, the volatility, regulatory outlook and crackdown, international trends vs that in the US, growth in crypto in LATAM & other regions -- and then dive in to their partnership, Crypto Source, sharing their vision for crypto in banking, what it means for the industry and how easy it is for banks to turn on, safely and compliantly, while being in control. With banks unlocking crypto, what does it mean for the future of finance? Li

In This Episode Jennifer Sertl, Founder Agility3R, hosts a dynamic panel at SIBOS 2023 with the dream team of Dr. Leda Glyptis, #LedaWrites; Tom Zschach, CIO, SWIFT; and Brett King, certainly no introduction needed here!, sitting in the panelists seats for Innotribe's Future of Money. We're in the midst of a transition, money historically has been the universal medium of exchange, a unit that signifies worth. As we venture deeper into the 21st century, the notion has been broadened and reshaped with tech advances, decentralized finance and other digital assets changing the concept of money and challenging the essence of value exchange. This transition extends to how value is perceived, created and distributed. It's the last of its class ... next year it's the Future of Value!

In This Episode This week we feature the first of a three part series focusing on fintech visionaries reimagining the future of finance. In the first segment host Brett King connects with Mariam Ogunbambi, Chief Client Officer at Engine by Starling, the technology arm of Starling Bank and Bronwyn Francis, SVP, Advisors Business Development, Mastercard. Starling Bank, as many of you know, is Britain’s first digital bank, a true fintech success story. Engine is the platform that powers Starling and is now being provided to banks globally as a Software-as-a-Service solution to help them innovate, digitally transform or launch new digital offerings in their own markets, offering the opportunity to keep up with the pace of change and chance to replicate some of the Starling Bank magic. It's an interesting first segment in this special series! Then, it's time for some more Hot Takes! This time, Fintech on Fire live from MX's Money Experience Summit in Las Vegas. We have three bold panelists eager to tackle ho

In This Episode This week we start with a special segment as we head to SIBOS 2023 in Toronto and prepare for a panel discussion for the Future of Money. We look back over 10 years, pulling clips from prior Future of Money panels, the flagship session for SWIFT Innotribe for many years. Next week we will bring you the highlights from this year's Future of Money panel. It's a two-parter, so stay tuned!  Spoiler alert: as we look back there wasn't much that the various panelists got wrong, in some cases the timing was off, but in most they were spot-on as they discussed the digitization of the banking sector and the explosion of banking through the world.   Then host Brett King connects with award-winning author and tech investor Alex Tapscott to discuss Alex's new book Web3: Charting the Internet's Next Economic and Cultural Frontier.  Referred to as an essential introduction and guide to navigating the next internet revolution, the book and discussion covers everything from the metaverse and NFTs to DAO

In This Episode It is always exciting when one can do good by combining personal experience, knowledge, need and work to create something for the benefit of many. This is exactly what Citizens Bank of Edmond President and CEO Jill Castilla did with Roger (think military term indicating message received). Listen as Jill and Jason Henrichs discuss how the bank launched a digital bank for military recruits -- entry-level recruits many of whom enter basic training without bank accounts. The lack of an account can delay training start date and a recruit's first paycheck, and financial stability, predatory lending and financial literacy can be threats to military readiness. It's a fascinating success story. Then, as it is FinovateFall, we feature a Finovate conversation between 'MC' Greg Palmer and Elizabeth McCloskey, TruStage Ventures, where they cover the fintech funding landscape specific to Credit Unions and DEI Initiatives. https://youtu.be/8G7zuQFBzj0

In This Episode When does a fintech become what they set out to disrupt?  Is it when they start offering bank-like products?  Get a banking license?  Is it when they go all-in and buy an actual bank?  In this episode sister pod, Breaking Banks Asia Pacific, asks whether this is good, bad, or something else for competition. The Asian Banker founder Emmanuel Daniel says fintechs struggle to maintain their innovative edge when they get sucked into the bid to become a bank, and Wise’s Surendra Chaplot believes you can be bank-like and still forge a path that is sensitive to customer needs. What do you think?

In This Episode This week FinovateFall Master of Ceremonies Greg Palmer and host of Provoke.fm's Finovate podcast gives a taste of things to come as he shares two conversations with FinovateFall keynoters Luke Williams, NYU Stern School of Business Professor and Author of Disrupt, and Manas Chawla, Founder of London Politica. No spoiler alerts here, so you'll need to listen to the episode and come to FinovateFall NYC September 11 -13th to hear Luke talk about Disrupt and Innovation, and Manas talk about Geopolitical Risk and Gray Rhinos. https://youtu.be/eg34z-Cfizc

In This Episode John Pitts, head of Policy at Plaid, and Jason Henrichs were recently talking about open finance and the Interagency Guidance on Third Party Due Diligence -- no doubt these are hot topics in your house like they are in ours -- and the idea to record some Hot Takes  came to life. In the time it took to ship out Breaking Banks hot sauce, the Federal Reserve Bank decided to do its own hot take and create a supervision program for “Novel Activities.” Jonah Crane, partner at Klaros Group, former regulator in residence at the Fintech Innovation Lab and longtime regulator at the US Department of Treasury joined in on the fun and Dara Tarkowsi, partner at Actuate Law and host of Provoke.fm's Tech on Reg podcast accepted the challenge to co-host with Jason for the first half. Then, if that wasn’t hot enough, in the second half, Frank Rotman, co-founder of QED Investors, 5x Forbes Midas Touch investor and Jason talk about building in the upcycle vs. building in the now cycle. Frank brings the heat

In This Episode The Metaverse Economy: How Finance Professionals Can Make Sense of Web3 is Arun Krishnakumar and Theo Lau's new book. Listen as Brett King connects with Theo Lau, frequent guest and Founder, Unconventional Ventures. The metaverse is evolving, the way the metaverse is now, is not close to where it will be. The book is designed to equip fintech professionals with an in-depth understanding of the emergent economic models in the Metaverse and across Web3, and also understand the risks associated with the Metaverse and help these professionals prepare for what lies ahead in this immersive environment. The concept of community in the metaverse is important, we don't want to leave people behind. Then Brett and Jason Henrichs shift the subject to talk about recent fires in Greece (sadly we can also add Maui to the list), the Impact of these fires and the EU response to climate change with author and influencer Dr. Leda Glyptis. July 2023 just scattered the record for the hottest month, per NASA,

In This Episode Rising interest rates caught many by surprise. We saw some banks fail, Fintech venture funding dropped 50% year over year. IPOs were pulled. M&A for banks and fintechs are in limbo. Many say this is nothing short of an innovation nuclear winter unlike anything we've seen before. For others, this state of the world seemed vaguely familiar before a decade plus of Zero Interest Rate Policies. Except, it isn't just a reversion to the mean. There are many structural differences from 2008 and 2000 before that. It feels familiar, but are we really entering the Twilight Zone of Fintech? Is it a dystopian future or will there be an unexpected twist? Listen as Jason Henrichs hosts another HOT (yes, we added some spice!) episode with Rahul Baig, Managing Director, Head of Venture Capital Coverage at Wells Fargo, Sarah Hinkfuss, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures, and Amias Gerety, Partner at QED investors. There was plenty of hot sauce to go with the Hot Takes and debates. Amias even shares his se