Dave and Dharm DeMystify

In this week's episode, Dave and Dharm are joined by Denise Johansson, CEO and Co-Founder of Enfuce, to explore the growing importance of payment sovereignty, Europe's dependence on global payment networks and the future of financial infrastructure. As geopolitical tensions reshape the global economy, Europe faces an important question: how much control does it really have over the payment systems...

In this week's episode, Dave and Dharm welcome back Christie H. Kristensen, Strategic Partnership Integrations Director at Danske Bank, to explore how Model Context Protocol (MCP), artificial intelligence and agentic banking are transforming the way businesses interact with financial institutions. As AI continues to reshape financial services, banks are facing a fundamental shift in how customers...

In this week's episode, Dave and Dharm are joined by Joe Wilson, Chief Evangelist at bunq, to explore how artificial intelligence, innovation and a customer-first approach are reshaping banking. Joe explains how bunq has challenged traditional banking by building its technology and business model around the needs of its users. From AI-powered customer service and fraud prevention to the rise of au...

In this week's episode, Dave and Dharm are joined by Lionel Grosclaude, CEO of Fime, to explore what happens when artificial intelligence moves beyond helping us make decisions and starts making purchases and payments on our behalf. As AI agents become increasingly autonomous, a fundamental question emerges: how do we know they're actually doing what we asked them to do? Lionel explains why authen...

In this week's episode, Dave and Dharm are joined by Colin Payne, Head of Innovation at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Chair of the Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN), to explore how regulators are adapting to one of the fastest periods of technological change the financial services industry has ever experienced. Drawing on decades of experience leading digital transformation be...

In this special episode, Dave is joined by Dharmesh Mistry and Lou Carlozo to explore the ideas behind Dharmesh's upcoming book, The Intelligent Ledger, and why the convergence of AI, tokenisation, digital twins and quantum computing could fundamentally reshape banking. Drawing on decades of experience in banking, technology and financial journalism, Dharmesh and Lou explore why the industry may b...

In this week's episode, Dharm is joined by Rob Rooney, Co-founder and CEO of Hyperlayer, and **Paul Rolles, Co-founder and Chief Architect, to explore why banking innovation has stalled, and how a new approach to programmable banking could unlock the next generation of financial products. Drawing on decades of experience at Morgan Stanley and building financial technology businesses, Rob and Paul...

In this week's episode, Dharm is joined by Briana Marbury, CEO of the Interledger Foundation, to explore one of the biggest challenges in global finance today: creating truly interoperable payments that work seamlessly across banks, payment networks, and borders. Drawing on her background in finance and her work leading the Interledger Foundation, Briana explains why moving money across different...

In this week's episode, Dharm is joined by Leonardo Collado, Global General Manager of Pismo at Visa, to explore how modern core banking infrastructure is becoming the foundation for the next generation of financial services. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience in payments, Leonardo explains why legacy banking systems are holding financial institutions back and how real-time, cloud-native...

In this week's episode, Dave and Dharm are joined by Arjeh van Oijen, Product Strategy Lead at Icon Solutions, to explore one of the most talked-about topics in financial services today: tokenisation and the future of digital payments. Drawing on more than 35 years of experience in payments and over a decade working with blockchain and distributed ledger technology, Arjeh explains why tokenisation...

In this episode, Dharm sits down with Eric Bierry, CEO of SBS, to explore two often-overlooked areas of financial services: asset finance and the future of building societies. Drawing on decades of experience in banking technology, Eric shares his insights into how these sectors are adapting to artificial intelligence, tokenisation, and changing customer expectations. The conversation begins with...

In this episode, Dharm sits down with Michael Boel, Head of Clearing Technology at Banking Circle, to explore why moving money around the world remains slower, more expensive, and more complex than many people realise. Drawing on more than 15 years of experience across banking, capital markets, and payments, Michael shares his journey through the industry and reflects on how payment infrastructure...

In this week’s episode, Dave is joined by Bartosz Skwarczek, Founder and Chairman of G2A, for a fascinating conversation about trust, artificial intelligence, and how digital marketplaces are preparing for the next era of online commerce. Bartosz shares the story behind G2A’s growth from a small gaming business in Poland to one of the world’s largest digital entertainment marketplaces, serving mor...

In this week’s episode, Dave and Dharm are joined by Ben Sheedy, co-founder of SynthWise, for a fascinating conversation about one of the biggest challenges facing businesses today: not whether to adopt AI, but how to do it successfully. Ben shares the story behind SynthWise and how his own experiences experimenting with early language models revealed that AI adoption is far more than a technology...

In this week’s episode, Dave is joined by Vyacheslav Kim, CEO of the Freedom Super App and Managing Director at Freedom Bank, for a fascinating conversation about how super apps are reshaping banking by integrating financial services with everyday lifestyle experiences. Vyacheslav shares the story behind building the Freedom Super App, which started with the acquisition of a small bank with just 4...

In this week’s episode, Dave and Dharm are joined by James Tweed from Coracle for a fascinating conversation that sits at the intersection of education, technology, and financial services, and challenges how we think about inclusion in a digital world. Coracle is an EdTech company delivering secure, offline digital education to prisons across the UK, giving learners access to a wide range of conte...

Hosts Dave and Dharmesh explore how AI-powered “vibe coding,” autonomous agents, and real-time software creation are reshaping the future of development with Sergio Gago, CTO of Cloudera. Sergio, a former leader at Moody’s and now CTO at Cloudera, is at the forefront of AI-driven data platforms. He introduces the concept of vibe coding, a new paradigm where developers (and increasingly non-develop...

In this week’s episode, Dave is joined by Marie Diron, Global Head of Sovereign Ratings at Moody’s Ratings, for a fascinating conversation about how artificial intelligence could transform economies at a national level, far beyond its impact on companies and individuals. Marie shares insights from Moody’s Ratings latest research examining how AI may affect three critical pillars of sovereign analy...

Hosts Dave and Dharmesh explore how artificial intelligence, later-life lending, and turnkey core platforms are reshaping the future of UK financial services with Gareth Richardson, Finova's CEO. In this week’s episode of the Demystify Podcast, Dave and Dharmesh are joined by Gareth Richardson, CEO of Finova, for a wide-ranging and candid conversation about the forces quietly transforming UK core...

In this week’s episode of the Demystify Podcast, Dave and Dharmesh sit down with Vilius Oškeliūnas, wealth manager and co-founder of Commody, for a fascinating discussion about the intersection of traditional finance, blockchain infrastructure, and petrolhead passion. Vilius shares how Commody was born from a simple but powerful idea: connecting serious car collectors with enthusiasts who dream of...

Hosts Dave and Dharmesh are joined by Roger Rouhana, co-founder and CEO of Alpheya, to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping wealth and trading infrastructure. In this week’s episode of the Demystify Podcast, Dave and Dharmesh sit down with Roger Rouhana, co-founder and CEO of Alpheya, for a wide-ranging and thoughtful conversation about the transformation underway in wealth management...

This week Dave sits down with Slavo Vojacek and Ricky Marcon, co-founders of OpenCoreOS, for a frank conversation about what “core banking” needs to become in an AI-native world. Slavo (a distributed-systems engineer turned core-banking specialist) and Ricky (a product and business-builder with deep delivery experience) argue that the industry is at a new inflexion point: real-time payments, growi...

In this episode, Dave and Dharm are joined by Alice Violet, founder of Alice Violet Creative and host of the Cyber Made Human podcast, for a wide-ranging and refreshingly human conversation about the current state of cybersecurity. Based in the heart of the UK’s cybersecurity ecosystem in Cheltenham, Alice brings a unique perspective shaped by her journey from luxury travel marketing to senior rol...

In this episode, Dave and Dharm welcome back Ziad Nassar, Deputy CEO of Huspy, one year after his first appearance on the show. And what a difference a year makes. Ziad shares how Huspy has evolved from a UAE-based mortgage innovator into one of the fastest-scaling proptechs in EMEA, now active across the UAE and Spain with expansion under way in Saudi Arabia. Backed by a US $59 million Series B r...

In this episode, Dave and Dharm sit down with Ben Goldin, CEO and Founder of Plumery, to explore how digital banking needs to evolve beyond its legacy foundations. With more than two decades in banking technology — including senior roles at Mambu and Backbase — Ben shares his deep insights into what’s broken in today’s digital banking architectures and how Plumery is reimagining them for a composa...